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THE 

TWO  CHIEFS  OF  DUNBOY. 


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THE 


TWO  CHIEFS  OF  DUNBOY 


OR 


AN  IRISH  ROMAN'CE  OF  THE  LAST 


J.    A.     FROUDE 


Under  which  King,  Beaonian?     Speak,  or  die. 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES     SCRIBNER'S     SONS 
1889. 


\Authors  Edition^ 


All  rights  reserved. 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co., 
Astor  Place,  New  York, 


J  ^ 


s 


I 


THE 

TWO   CHIEFS   OF   DUNBOY 

CHAPTER  I. 

On  the  right  bank  of  the  Loire,  two  miles  below  the 
town  of  Nantes,  there  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  the  extensive  premises  of  the  firm  of  Messrs. 
Blake  and  Delany,  Irish  exiles  who  had  been 
naturalized  in  France,  and  were  carrying  on  a  large 
business  there  as  merchants  and  ship  owners.  The 
relations  between  the  great  countries  of  Europe  were 
generally  unsettled.  The  normal  condition  was  war. 
In  the  intervals  of  nominal  peace  the  seas  continued 
insecure.  The  privateer  of  one  year  glided  by  an 
easy  transition  into  the  pirate  of  the  next,  and  the 
pirate  when  war  broke  out  again  recovered  by  a  letter 
of  marque  his  position  as  a  legitimate  belligerent. 
The  traders  had  to  depend  upon  themselves  for  the 
defence  of  their  property.  Their  ships  went  armed, 
and  the  yards  where  they  were  fitted  out  wore  the 
appearance  of  naval  arsenals.  The  enterprises  of 
Messrs.  Blake  and  Delany  might  be  inferred  from 
the  aspect  of  their  stores  to  have  been  of  an  excep- 
tionally dangerous  character.     The  river  side,  where 

I 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY, 


their  establishment  was  carried  on,  had  been  embanked 
for  several  hundred  yards  ;  the  ground  had  been 
levelled,  large  warehouses  had  been  erected  over  the 
water,  and  barges  and  larger  vessels  lay  at  the 
wharves  and  quays  below  them  to  be  loaded  and 
unloaded  by  projecting  cranes.  Rows  of  solid  stone 
buildings  ran  up  over  the  area  behind,  shaded  by 
acacias  and  chestnut  trees.  In  the  intervals  were 
sheds  and  workshops  containing  sea-stores,  chains 
and  anchors,  spars,  cables,  canvas,  and  the  miscel- 
laneous requirements  of  vessels  intended  for  ocean 
voyages  ;  while  an  acre  or  more  was  littered  with 
guns  and  cannon  balls  piled  into  pyramids.  An 
isolated  structure,  apart  from  the  rest,  was  evidently  a 
powder  magazine  ;  and  at  half-a-dozen  forges  in  an 
engine-house,  workmen  were  busy  making  or  repair- 
ing muskets  and  pistols,  or  hammering  out  sword 
blades  and  boarding  pikes. 

At  the  time  when  our  story  opens,  business  was 
in  full  activity.  Large  ships  were  moored  alongside 
the  jetties — others,  evidently  belonging  to  the  same 
owners,  were  anchored  outside  in  the  river,  whose 
white  painted  but  weather-stained  hulls  showed  that 
they  had  returned  from  distant  expeditions  in  the 
tropic  seas,  while  coasting  smacks,  sloops  and  luggers 
spoke  of  a  trade  near  at  home  which  could  be  no 
less  considerable.  Mr.  Blake,  the  chief  owner  and 
manager,  for  Mr.  Delany  was  but  a  sleeping  partner, 
furnihhed  an  instance — one  among  many  to  be  ob- 
served at  that  epoch — of  what  an  Irishman  could 
do  when  transplanted  from  the  land  of  his  birth.  His 
father  had  been  a  gentleman  of  property  in  the  county 
of  Galway.  He  was  a  Catholic  and  a  patriot.  He 
had   fought  at  Aghrim,  and  had  caught  St.  Ruth  in 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  3 

his  arms  when  the  fatal  cannon  shot  which  killed  the 
French  General  decided  the  fate  of  Ireland.  He  had 
retired  upon  his  property,  when  the  campaign  was 
over,  being  protected  as  he  supposed  by  the  Articles  of 
Limerick  and  Galway  :  but  these  Articles  required  the 
consent  of  Parliament  ;  and  receiving  that  consent 
only  in  a  mutilated  form,  they  proved  but  a  weak 
defence.  His  estates  were  forfeited,  and  like  so  many 
of  the  bravest  of  his  countrymen,  he  fled  to  France, 
became  an  active  officer  in  the  Irish  Brigade,  rose  into 
favour  with  the  French  Government,  and  won  fame 
and  rank  in  the  wars  of  the  Low  Countries.  The  hope 
of  his  life  had  been  that  he  might  one  day  land  again 
in  his  own  country  at  the  head  of  his  regiment,  and 
try  conclusions  once  more  with  the  ancient  enemy. 
More  than  once  his  wish  seemed  likely  to  be  gratified. 
In  1708  especially,  when  a  Stuart  rising  was  intended  in 
Scotland,  an  expeditionary  force  from  France  was  to 
have  been  thrown  simultaneously  into  Galway.  But  the 
project  came  to  nothing,  and  in  the  year  following 
General  Blake  died,  leaving  little  money  behind  him, 
but  bequeathing  to  his  son  Patrick  a  name  which  he 
had  made  distinguished,  and  the  favour  of  the  Courts 
of  St.  Germains  and  of  Versailles,  which  had  appre- 
ciated his  worth  and  his  services. 

Patrick  Blake,  thrown  on  his  own  resources  at 
the  age  of  twenty,  was  taken  charge  of  at  first  by 
his  father's  friends,  and  was  provided  with  his  first 
opportunities.  He  received  a  commission,  but  he  dis- 
played talents  in  another  direction,  which  opened  to 
him  a  more  promising  career.  Being  accidentally 
employed  in  some  commissariat  contract,  he  showed  a 
practical  aptitude  for  business  which  was  not  to  be 
neglected.      In  other  transactions  of  a  similar  kind  he 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


was  equally  successful,  carrying  them  through  with 
rapidity  and  success.  His  patriotism  was  as  ardent 
as  his  father's ;  but  his  eye  was  keen,  and  he  dis- 
cerned that  there  were  ways  of  assisting  Ireland's 
cause,  in  which  he  could  combine  his  country's 
interest  with  his  own.  He  became  the  agent  of  the 
Irish  Brigade.  He  set  on  foot  the  organization  for 
recruiting  the  young  Catholics  who  were  impatient  of 
English  rule,  collecting  them  under  the  name  of  wild- 
geese,  and  bringing  them  over  into  the  French  service 
to  learn  their  trade  as  soldiers.  He  was  employed  in 
dispatching  and  recommending  the  French  officers 
who  were  sent  over  from  time  to  time  into  Galway 
and  Kerry  to  keep  alive  the  national  hopes.  While 
thus  engaged  he  discerned,  in  the  unfortunate  com- 
mercial policy  which  destroyed  the  Irish  woollen 
manufactures,  an  opportunity  for  disorganizing  the 
Irish  administration,  of  combining  all  classes  and  all 
creeds  there,  peasant  and  landlord.  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant, in  a  league  to  defeat  an  unjust  law,  and  while 
filling  the  pockets  of  his  countrymen  to  build  up  his 
own  fortune  at  the  same  time.  Irish  wool,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  last  century,  was  supposed  to  be  the  most 
excellent  in  the  world,  and  commanded  the  highest 
prices  in  the  natural  market.  The  English  woollen 
manufacturers,  afraid  of  being  beaten  out  of  the  field 
if  the  Irish  were  permitted  to  compete  with  them, 
persuaded  the  Parliament  to  lay  prohibitory  duties  on 
Irish  blankets  and  broad  cloth,  which  crushed  the 
production  of  these  articles.  Not  contented  with  pre- 
venting the  Irish  from  working  up  their  fleeces  at  home, 
they  insisted  that  the  Irish  fleeces  should  be  sold  in 
England  only,  and  at  such  a  price  as  would  be  con- 
venient to  themselves.     The  natural  price,  which  the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  5 


French  were  willing  to  pay,  was  three  or  four  times 
higher — and  the  effect  was  a  premium  upon  smug- 
gling, which  no  human  nature,  least  of  all  Irish  human 
nature,  could  be  expected  to  resist.  The  temptation 
was  evident  to  every  one,  and  in  all  parts  of  Ireland  a 
contraband  trade  sprung  up  of  itself — but  Blake  was 
the  first  person  who  saw  the  opportunity  of  develop- 
ing it  into  a  system,  and  combining  interest  with 
patriotism.  He  commenced  operations  with  a  country- 
man who  furnished  the  necessary  capital.  He  was  so 
successful  that,  before  the  century  had  half  run  its 
course,  four-fifths  of  the  Irish  fleeces  were  carried 
underhand  into  France,  in  spite  of  English  laws 
and  English  cruisers.  Irish  lawlessness  for  once 
had  justice  on  its  side,  and  flourished  like  a  green 
bay  tree.  Patrick  Blake  became  the  wealthiest  mer- 
chant on  the  Loire,  and  his  gains  were  sweetened 
by  the  sense  that  they  were  the  spoils  of  the  op- 
pressors. As  he  grew  into  a  man  of  consequence, 
his  ambition  grew  along  with  it.  The  wool  cargoes 
were  first  paid  for  in  specie.  The  amount  of  gold 
and  silver  carried  out  of  France  in  consequence,  drew 
the  attention  of  the  Government.  The  remedy  was 
easy.  The  business  had  only  to  be  further  extended. 
The  vessels  that  had  brought  the  wool  returned  loaded 
with  brandy  and  claret.  The  revenue  suffered  a 
further  wound,  and  the  corruption  and  demoraliza- 
tion spread  from  farm-house  to  castle.  Neither  Peer 
nor  Squire  cared  to  pay  duty  on  his  Bordeaux  or 
his  Cognac,  when  he  could  have  his  cellars  filled  for 
him  at  half  price,  if  he  cared  to  ask  no  unnecessary 
questions.  High  and  low  became  accomplices  in  an 
all-spreading  fraud.  And  this  was  not  all.  His  busi- 
ness   brought    Blake   into  a   secret    and   confidential 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


correspondence  with  men  of  all  ranks  in  all  parts  of 
Ireland.  His  vessels  continued  to  carry  the  wild- 
geese.  Being  famous  for  speed,  they  were  chosen  by 
the  Bishops  and  unregistered  Priests  whose  presence  in 
their  own  country  was  forbidden  by  law,  and  who  had 
therefore  to  avail  themselves  of  irregular  opportunities. 
Transactions  of  this  kind  passed  into  politics.  His 
relations  with  the  Court  of  the  Pretender  had  continued. 
When  the  French  Government  wished  to  disturb 
England  at  home,  it  was  through  Blake  that  they 
communicated  with  the  disaffected  Irish  Catholics. 
He  became  involved  gradually  in  the  conspiracies  and 
intrigues  of  the  time,  and  when  Charles  Edward  went 
to  Scotland  in  1745,  Patrick  Blake  not  only  provided 
the  brig  in  which  he  sailed,  but  himself  accompanied 
the  Prince  to  the  point  where  he  landed,  and  fetchea 
him  back  ac^ain  after  his  defeat,  at  the  end  of  his 
wanderings  in  the  Highlands.  The  Scotch  adventure 
had  been  undertaken  against  the  advice  of  Blake, 
who  would  have  preferred  that  his  own  country  should 
be  the  scene  of  the  first  attempt  of  the  Pretender  to 
recover  his  throne.  Neither  the  disaster  in  which  it 
ended,  nor  the  peace  of  Aix,  which  followed  three 
years  after,  had  moderated  his  enthusiasm  or  quenched 
his  energy.  The  contraband  trade  and  the  exporta- 
tion of  wild-geese  went  on  merrily  as  ever,  and  Patrick 
at  the  age  of  sixty  was  still  thriving  and  prosperous, 
extending  his  legitimate  commerce  beyond  the 
Atlantic  and  into  the  other  hemisphere,  sending  out 
privateers  to  carry  on  depredations  among  the  Eng- 
lish colonies,  and  amidst  all  his  other  interests  never 
ceasing  to  scheme  and  plot  to  give  the  Saxon  invader 
an  uncomfortable  time  of  it  in  Ireland.  In  the  midst 
of  his  disappointment  at  the  conclusion  of  the  peace, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  7 

he  could  console  himself  with  perceiving  that  year  by- 
year  the  Protestant  Establishment  was  growing  weaker, 
that  the  fast-spreading  anarchy  was  more  fatal  to 
English  authority  and  influence  than  the  bloodiest 
defeat  in  the  field,  that  slowly  but  surely  his  own 
people  were  recovering  their  hold  on  their  own  land. 

The  ship  yards  and  the  buildings  connected  with 
the  working  establishment  covered  several  acres.  At 
one  end  of  them,  and  divided  from  the  business 
premises  by  a  high  wall  and  a  plantation  of  trees, 
was  Mr.  Blake's  own  residence.  It  was  a  solid 
chateau,  designed  and  erected  by  himself,  on  a  scale 
which  corresponded  with  the  position  which  he  had 
arrived  at.  Being  a  merchant  prince,  he  chose  to  be 
lodged  like  a  prince,  and  his  house  was  like  a  wing  of 
the  Royal  Palace  at  Blois.  From  the  central  door,  a 
wide  flight  of  steps  led  into  a  garden  two  acres  in 
extent,  which  stretched  down  to  the  river,  and  was 
divided  by  straight  gravelled  walks.  The  beds  were 
brilliant  with  flowers,  exotics  many  of  them,  brought 
home  for  him  by  intelligent  captains  of  his  own  ships. 
American  aloes,  then  strangers  in  Europe,  flung  up 
their  tall  yellow  spires,  oleanders  waved  their  pink 
and  white  blossoms  in  the  wind,  acacias  of  all  kinds 
threw  patches  of  shade  upon  the  paths.  In  the  centre 
of  the  grounds  was  a  circular  basin  into  which  sea 
monsters,  carved  in  marble,  poured  streams  of  water  : 
a  fountain  threw  showers  of  spray,  and  blue  water- 
lilies  shone  among  the  broad  leaves  which  the  drops 
sprinkled  as  they  fell.  Mr.  Blake  was  luxurious  in  his 
horticulture,  and  spared  neither  expense  nor  study  to 
secure  plants  which  were  curious  as  well  as  beautiful. 
Among  the  lilies,  of  which,  as  an  adopted  child  of 
France,  he  had   an    endless  variety,    one   only    was 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


excluded.  His  gardener,  who  observed  that  there 
was  a  missing  specimen,  had  rashly  introduced  an 
orange  lily  among  its  sister  tribes.  He  had  been 
rewarded  by  a  cataract  of  oaths  in  such  genuine  Gal- 
way  vernacular,  that  although  he  lost  the  sense  of 
half  the  execrations  which  were  hurled  upon  him,  the 
bewildered  wretch  discovered  that  he  had  committed 
a  fatal  offence.  The  hated  emblem  of  Protestant 
ascendancy  was  torn  out  of  the  soil,  and  was  hurled 
ignominously  over  the  walls  into  the  tide-way. 

On  the  river  side  the  garden  was  bounded  by  a 
terrace,  which  extended  along  the  entire  length  of 
it  from  end  to  end.  This  terrace  was  Mr.  Blake's 
favourfte  walk,  commanding  as  it  did  a  fine  view  up 
and  down  the  Loire.  A  parapet  wall  three  feet  high, 
and  covered  with  roses  and  jessamines,  kept  off  the 
wind,  and  protected  careless  wanderers  from  danger 
of  falling  into  the  water.  At  intervals  old  ships' 
cannon  had  been  mounted,  rather  for  ornament  than 
use,  and  at  either  end  a  flight  of  boat-stairs  descended 
to  the  water  side.  Terrace,  walks,  and  flower  beds 
were  kept  in  scrupulous  order  by  three  or  four 
negroes,  part  of  some  privateer's  spoils,  who  were 
admonished  practically  by  something  sharper  than 
words,  if  dead  blossoms,  or  weeds,  or  fallen  leaves 
were  observed  where  they  ought  not  to  be. 


CHAPTER  H. 

One  morning,  late  in  the  summer  of  175 — ,  the 
owner  of  all  this  wealth  and  sumptuosity  was  pacing 
the  terrace  with  some  impatience,  watching  the 
movements  of  a  brigantine  which  had  just  come  in 
with  the   tide   from   the  sea,  and   was  taking  up  her 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  9 

moorings  some  two  hundred  yards  distant  from  him. 
He  was  a  strongly  built  old  gentleman,  with  a  face 
seamed  and  tanned  by  work  and  weather — but  other- 
wise apparently  little  the  worse  for  the  sixty  years 
which  had  rolled  him  along  his  busy  life-way.  He 
was  loosely  dressed  in  a  purple,  square-cut  coat,  which 
had  seen  service  like  its  wearer  ;  originally  it  had 
been  of  rich  material,  and  was  trimmed  with  gold 
lace,  but  the  braiding  was  tarnished  by  exposure  and 
the  cloth  stained  and  spotted  with  salt-water,  A 
long  flapped  waistcoat,  breeches  of  black  velvet  and  a 
pair  of  long  sailors'  boots,  made  the  rest  of  his  cos- 
tume. Round  his  waist  was  a  leather  belt,  intended 
for  a  sword,  with  which,  however,  he  had  not  cared  to 
encumber  himself,  being  content  with  a  silver-headed 
cane  which  was  attached  to  his  wrist.  From  his  flap 
pockets  there  projected  the  butts  of  a  pair  of  pistols, 
which  he  had  thrust  into  them  from  force  of  habit,  but 
could  not  expect  to  have  occasion  for.  On  his  head 
he  had  an  old  three-cornered  hat,  with  the  remains  in 
it  of  a  ragged  ostrich  feather.  A  whistle  hung  round 
his  neck  by  a  cord,  in  which  the  thumb  of  his  left 
hand  was  mechanically  slung.  In  his  right  was  a 
spy-glass,  through  which  he  was  rather  anxiously 
examining  the  deck  of  the  brigantine,  as  if  he  missed 
something  there  which  he  expected  to  find. 

The  crew  of  the  vessel  had  brought  her  sharply 
round  to  the  buoy.  The  topsails  were  clewed  up  ; 
the  mainsail  lowered,  and  a  boat  was  dropped  from 
the  davits.  A  rough-looking  seaman  stepped  into  the 
stern-sheets  from  the  gangway,  and  was  rowed  in  to 
the  stairs,  at  the  head  of  which  Blake  was  standing 
to  receive  him. 

"  You  are  late,  Dennis,"  he  said,  as  the  man  came 


lo  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY, 


up  to  meet  him,  "  you  are  late.  We  looked  for  you 
three  days  ago.  You  have  a  heavy  cargo  I  see  by 
your  water-line,  but  where  are  your  passengers  ? 
Where  are  the  wild-geese,  and  where  are  the  two 
French  officers  that  were  coming  back  with  you  ?  I 
see  nothing  of  either." 

"  Well,  your  honour,"  answered  the  man  whom  he 
called  Dennis,  "  I  don't  know  in  the  world  what  has 
come  to  the  boys.  The  could  water  has  got  into  the 
hearts  of  them.  I  suppose  it  is  the  peace  that  done 
it.  After  Fontenoy,  as  your  honour  knows,  they  were 
as  plenty  as  swallows  in  the  Spring.  They  were  all 
racing  like  to  be  at  the  next  bating  of  the  red  coats. 
The  prettiest  lads  that  ever  wore  uniform  came  about 
us  at  that  time  for  their  passage.  There  was  young 
Mr.  Burke,  of  Rhinvile,  and  young  Bodkin,  and  a 
dozen  more  of  them,  fighting  which  should  have  the 
first  turn.  But  the  peace  that  is  made  has  taken  the 
life  out  of  them  entirely,  and  old  and  young  are  lying 
by  to  see  what  comes  of  it.  'Twas  said  they  had 
word  from  Paris  to  be  keeping  quiet  just  now — and 
for  the  officer  gentlemen  you  speak  of,  I  have  seen 
nothing  of  them,  good  or  bad." 

"  Hum  !  "  said  Blake.  "  They  might  have  judged 
that  I  knew  what  was  fit  for  them.  You  can  put  no 
sense  into  a  fool's  head,  beat  it  how  you  will.  You 
have  only  your  lading  then — well,  and  what  has 
delayed  you  on  )-our  way  ?  " 

"  Is  it  dela\',  your  honour  ?  Sure,  I've  brought  your 
ship  safe  home,  and  fine  value  in  the  inside  of  her. 
That  should  be  enough,  any  way.  It  is  God's  mercy 
that  we  are  here  at  all.     Glory  to  His  Holy  name." 

"  Why,  the  weather  has  been  well  enough,"  Blake 
said   impatiently,  "  and  the  wind    well    in   the  west. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV.  ii 

What  has  been  the  matter?  Tell  me  shortly."  He 
had  been  long  enough  out  of  Ireland  to  be  less  patient 
of  the  roundabout  ways  by  which  his  countrymen 
come  to  their  point. 

"  Well,  your  honour,  we  had  a  little  trouble  down  at 
the  Seven  Stones.  The  Dolphin,  that  is  the  big 
cutter  they  have  at  Penzance  just  now,  gave  us  a  chase, 
and  we  had  to  slip  away  at  the  back  of  the  Islands." 

"  The  Dolphin  I  "  said  Blake.  "  And  what  was  the 
Dolphin  wanting,  that  she  should  be  meddling  with 
you  ?  I  thought  the  cruisers  were  off  the  station  ? 
The  peace  you  speak  of  is  tender  just  yet,  and,  till 
it  has  hardened  a  bit,  the  English  are  careful  of 
meddling  with  the  French  flag  in  those  waters,  see  it 
where  they  will.  What  ailed  you,  to  run  from  her, 
man  ?  If  ye  had  none  on  board  but  yourselves,  they 
might  have  searched  you  till  they  were  tired  of  it. 
As  to  the  cargo,  if  they  don't  see  it,  they  don't  look 
for  it — and  the  ocean  is  as  free  to  us  as  to  them." 

"  I'll  tell  your  honour  how  it  was,"  Dennis  answered. 
"  Your  honour  speaks  nothing  but  the  truth  about 
the  cargo.  I  have  two  hundred  tons  of  wool  on 
board,  but  it  is  all  screwed  away  into  pork  and  butter 
barrels,  and  washed  over  with  brine.  They  could 
have  made  nothing  of  it,  unless  they  had  broken  into 
the  casks,  and  they  wouldn't  be  doing  that.  If  they 
had  wit  to  think  of  it,  we  would  have  found  the 
means  to  make  it  easy  with  them.  But  when  I  told 
your  honour  I  hadn't  the  company  with  me  that  you 
were  looking  for,  I  did  not  tell  you  that  I  had  none. 
There  was  a  gentleman  along  with  me,  that  was  afraid 
if  they  saw  him  it  might  be  a  little  unpleasant." 

"  Oh,  I  understand  you,"  said  Blake.  "  You  have 
one  of  the   holy   bishops  with   you — or   one  of  the 


12  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


fathers  that  are  on  the  mission.  You  should  have 
brought  him  on  shore,  that  I  might  pay  my  respects 
to  his  reverence." 

"  A  bishop  or  a  priest  is  it,"  laughed  Dennis.  "  A 
mighty  quare  Father  of  the  Church  Mr.  Sylvester 
would  be  making.  I  thought  best  to  leave  him  where 
he  was  till  I  had  seen  your  honour,  but  you  shall  see 
and  spake  with  him  yourself  I'll  tell  you  how  it  was. 
The  gentleman  had  rason  to  think  that  if  the  British 
Government  had  their  hands  upon  him,  there  would 
trouble  come  of  it.  He  would  be  stopped  on  his 
journey  any  way,  and  sorry  we'd  all  be  that  it  should 
so  happen,  for  there  was  much  depending  on  it.  The 
wind  was  up  to  the  North-west,  and  the  Dolphin  was 
reaching  out  between  us  and  the  Land's  End.  I  had 
not  seen  the  vessel  yet  that  could  touch  the  brig- 
antine  close  hauled  and  in  a  sea  way,  so  I  thought  I 
would  just  fetch  round  the  Islands  out  of  the  road. 
May  the  Divil  have  the  soul  of  the  shipwright  that 
laid  the  keel  of  her.  I  had  a  four  miles'  start,  and  she 
came  up  with  us  as  if  we  had  all  the  weeds  in  the 
tropics  growing  on  the  bottom  of  us.  The  wind  was 
blowing  half  a  gale.  The  Islands  were  under  our  lee, 
and  with  the  sea  raging  upon  the  rocks.  The  cutter 
lay  outside  a  mile  to  windward  of  us,  waiting  till  we 
tacked  or  went  ashore,  for  that  was  all  the  choice  she 
thought  we  had.  Mr.  Sylvester  w^as  taking  to  his 
prayers,  it  was  time  he  should  if  all  is  true  that  is 
towld  of  him.  But  just  then  we  came  off  the  opening 
of  Tresco,  your  honour  will  mind  the  place,  where 
Cromwell's  ould  Castle  stands  ;  'tis  a  blind  harbour 
with  no  second  road  out  of  it,  and  if  you  are  caught 
there,  you  are  like  a  rat  in  a  trap  ;  but  there  was  no 
choice  for   us  if  we  didn't  mean   to  go  on  the  rocks, 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY,  13 


for  we  could  not  weather  the  west  point,  so  we  up 
with  the  helm  and  ran  in  through  the  breakers.  A 
narrow  channel  it  is,  and  a  foul  bottom  to  it,  none 
knows  better  than  your  honour,  and  the  waves  were 
boiling  all  across  so  that  it  was  hard  to  see  where  the 
passage  was.  In  we  went  any  way,  and  the  cutter  at 
the  heel  of  us.  She  didn't  like  the  look  of  it,  but  she 
thought  where  we  could  go  she  could  go.  Them  craft 
are  well  enough  in  the  open  water,  but  under  the 
cliffs  where  the  squalls  come  any  way  their  big  spars 
and  heavy  sails  are  ill  to  handle.  The  pilot  did  not 
know  his  business,  the  Lord  be  praised  for  it.  A 
stroke  of  wind  came  the  wrong  way  for  him  and 
gibed  his  mainsail,  the  back  stays  went,  the  peak 
halyard  went,  and  all  in  a  mess  together  she  drove 
on  a  sunk  rock.  She  would  not  be  moving  out  of 
that  for  some  hours  at  the  least  of  it,  if  they  got  her 
off  at  all.  So  seeing  how  it  was,  and  as  there  was  a 
bit  of  slant  in  the  breeze,  we  just  turned  about  and 
went  out  again  close  under  her  stern.  She  gave  us  a 
shot,  which  cut  a  splinter  out  of  the  mainmast,  but 
we  were  out  of  range  before  she  could  clear  a  second 
gun.  I  kept  off  to  sea,  for  I  didn't  want  to  fall  iji 
with  any  more  such  company.  We  lost  a  day  or  two, 
but  here  we  are,  the  Lord  be  praised  for  it,  and  here  is 
the  cargo,  and  it  is  worth  a  thousand  pounds  to  your 
honour  this  day,  and  that  is  the  laste  of  it." 

"  That  is  a  fair  account  of  yourself,  Denny,  my  man," 
said  Blake,  whose  sharp  ways  made  his  praise  the 
more  valued  by  those  who  received  it.  "  You  did  a 
smart  bit  of  work,  and  never  fear  we  will  remember 
it  to  you.  I  suppose  I  know  who  you  mean  by  your 
Mr.  Sylvester.  I  have  seen  honester  faces  than  his  in 
my  time,  and   I   could   have  spared  the  sight  of  him 


14  THE  TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


again.  We  shall  Irarn  by-and-bye  what  brings  him 
here  just  now.  But  how  are  matters  going  in 
Galway  ?  " 

"  The  country  is  well  enough — never  better.  The 
houghers  have  made  a  clean  sweep  of  Sir  Walter 
Talbot's  cattle,  and  the  Scotch  drover  that  came  in 
and  took  the  land  that's  on  the  lakes  has  found  a  bad 
bargain.  The  King's  writ  has  not  yet  run  in  Conne- 
mara.  Devil  a  Sheriff's  officer  has  served  a  warrant 
in  the  land  your  honour  came  from,  and  never  shall, 
please  God." 

"  The  Protestants  have  hold  of  the  estates  for  all 
tliat,"  said  Blake,  gloomily,  "  and  are  likely  to  keep 
them  for  all  that  I  see  to  the  contrary." 

"  They  have  lost  the  hould  on  Galway  town  any- 
way," answered  Dennis.  "  Barring  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  that  has  to  swear  that  they  are  Protestants 
when  they  take  office,  and  sure  they  mane  it  no  more 
than  your  honour  would,  there  are  not  half  a  dozen 
of  the  heretic  blackguards  left  in  the  place,  that  is 
the  truth  ;  and  for  the  Acts  of  Parliament,  they  just 
laugh  at  them.  Now  and  then  they  are  frightened 
like  up  in  Dublin,  and  they  swear  they  will  clear  the 
Catholics  out  and  bring  in  a  colony  of  black  Protes- 
tants like  the  Ulster  lads.  There  was  a  fine  scare  in 
the  '45  when  your  honour  and  the  Prince  went  to 
Scotland,  and  the  French  Fleet  was  to  have  come  to 
Galway.  They  set  up  schools,  and  they  put  the 
Friars  out  that  were  coming  to  the  ould  Abbeys,  and 
they  shut  up  the  chapels.  But  what  was  the  use  of 
that  ?  Ye  may  clip  the  aigle's  wing,  but  unless  ye 
break  the  joint  the  feathers  grow  again.  The  Friars 
are  in  again,  God  bless  them,  and  there  is  a  house  for 
the  sisters  too  inside  the  walls.    The  childher  wouldn't 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  15 

»  ~ 

go  to  the  Protestant  school,  so  the  Corporation  sold 
the  school-room,  and  the  Priest  says  Mass  where  it 
stood.  We  are  doing  well,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  and 
we  will  see  the  day  yet  when  your  honour  will  have 
your  own  again." 

"  I  heard,"  Blake  said,  "  that  the  Government 
meant  to  make  Galway  into  a  garrison  town.  Some 
Colonel  or  other  was  to  go  there  and  take  command 
of  the  place.  The  walls  were  to  be  built  up  again, 
and  there  was  to  be  martial  law." 

"  That  is  true,  your  honour,"  answered  Dennis, 
"  they  did  so  mane  it,  as  long  as  the  war  lasted  and 
they  were  afraid  of  the  French.  But  Lord  !  what 
they  do  one  day  they  ravel  out  the  next,  like  an 
ould  stocking.  Your  honour  would  laugh  to  see 
it  all.  In  the  years  before  the  '45  the  land  had 
gone  to  sleep,  and  the  Castle  had  gone  to  ruin,  and 
the  poor  people  were  taking  the  stones  of  the  city 
walls  to  fence  their  potato  gardens.  The  roof  of  the 
Protestant  Church  fell  in,  and  when  some  of  thim 
craturs  they  call  Dissenters  would  have  had  a  Meet- 
ing-house, the  Protestant  Bishop  of  Tuam  that  was 
come  down  and  put  them  out  of  it.  The  poor 
soldiers  in  the  garrison  would  have  had  no  one  to 
care  for  their  souls,  but  that  our  priests  had  pity  on 
them  and  made  them  into  Christians.  The  Corpora- 
tion were  all  our  own  people.  Devil  a  sounder 
Catholic  in  Ireland  than  Mr.  O'Hara,  the  Mayor, 
Lord  Tyrawley's  footman  that  was.  If  he  dirtied 
his  mouth  with  a  bit  of  an  oath  on  taking  office, 
wasn't  the  Holy  Church  there  to  make  it  clane 
for  him  ?  The  rivenue  fellows  considered  that  when 
the  country  was  not  allowed  an  honest  trade  it  was  no 
business  of  theirs  to  gather   King  George's  customs 


i6  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


for  him.  So  your  honour's  vessels  and  them  from 
Spain  loaded  and  unloaded  at  Galway  Quay  in  the 
broad  daylight,  and  never  a  question  asked  of  them 
good  or  bad." 

Dennis  it  seemed  liked  to  hear  himself  talk,  and 
Blake  became  rather  impatient.  "  I  know  all  that," 
he  said.  "  I  want  to  know  what  has  happened 
since." 

"Well,"  answered  Dennis,  "I'll  tell  your  honour. 
'Twas  Fontenoy  first  gave  them  the  fright,  and  they 
said  in  the  Parliament,  and  it  was  a  true  word  for 
them  among  all  the  lies  that  are  spoken  in  that  place, 
that  the  French  were  coming  to  Galway.  French 
officers  they  said  were  about  among  the  people,  and 
half  the  country  would  be  up  and  marching  upon 
Dublin.  So  after  they  had  put  the  Scots  down  the 
turn  came  for  Connaught.  Your  honour  will  mind 
ould  Colonel  Eyre,  him  that  got  the  lands  that  be- 
long to  your  honour,  where  your  honours  lived  and 
reigned  since  the  Danes  built  Galway  town.  The 
Colonel  ye  will  remember  was  Governor  of  Galway 
forty  years  back,  a  sharp  and  cruel  lad  he  was,  and 
the  Eyres  are  a  cruel  race.  Well,  the  Colonel  left  a 
son  behind  him  as  like  his  father  as  a  young  wolf  is 
like  an  ould  one." 

"  That  is  so,"  said  Blake,  "  as  I  have  reason  to 
know.  The  young  Eyre  you  speak  of  was  at  Cul- 
loden  with  the  Butcher  Cumberland.  It  was  he,  and 
another  officer,  Goring  the  man  was  called,  that 
chased  the  Prince  so  hardly  after  the  battle,  and 
caught  Sheridan  and  Morty  Sullivan  who  were  on 
the  Prince's  staff.  They  escaped,  and  it  was  well 
they  did,  or  they  would  have  been  shot  the  next 
I   have  a  mark  in   my  books  against   that 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  17 


gentleman,  to  be  remembered  one  day.  But  what 
about  him  now  ?  " 

*'  Well,  your  honour,  the  Duke  had  an  esteem 
for  Mr.  Eyre,  for  the  reason  your  honour  mentions. 
He  was  a  bould  lad,  as  it  were  like  he  would  be  with 
the  Connemara  blood  in  the  veins  of  him.  So  the 
Duke  considering  that  Galway  was  lying  open  for 
the  French  to  come  in,  just  appointed  him  to  the 
place  his  father  held  before  him. 

"  Down  they  sent  him  to  Galway  with  a  fresh  regi- 
ment of  red  coats,  and  sorrow  there  was  in  town  and 
country  the  day  he  came  among  us.  He  was  the 
boy  that  would  bring  us  all   into  order,  as  he  called  it. 

"  He  calls  up  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  and  makes 
them  swear  them  ugly  oaths  over  again,  and  bring 
their  account  books  and  show  what  they  had 
done  with  King  George's  money,  as  if  honest  men 
were  to  be  put  to  trouble  for  them  dirty  English. 
Galway,  says  he,  was  a  garrison  town,  and  under 
military  law,  and  he  out  with  the  Penal  act,  and 
reads  a  clause  that  no  Papists  were  to  be  harboured 
there,  and  away  they  were  to  go.  And  the  walls  were 
to  be  built  up  again,  and  the  gates  were  to  be  shut  at 
sunset,  and  the  quays  were  to  be  watched  all  the 
night  long.  The  Lord  Archbishop  of  the  Province 
was  in  the  town  one  day.  Sure,  he  hunted  him  out 
as  if  his  Reverence  had  been  no  better  than  a  dog- 
fox. You  are  not  well  pleased  with  the  Peace,  Mr. 
Blake,  but  if  the  war  had  lasted,  Colonel  Eyre  would 
have  made  wild  work  in  Galway.  But  Mr.  O'Hara 
knew  how  it  was  to  be,  like  a  clever  lad  as  he  is. 
When  the  peace  was  proclaimed,  over  came  the  orders 
from  London,  that  nothing  more  was  to  be  done  to 
displease  the  French,  or  give  ofifence  to  His  Majesty's 

2 


i8  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


good  Catholic  subjects.  And  Mr.  O'Hara  went  to 
Dublin  and  complained  that  the  Colonel  was  going 
against  the  civil  authorities  with  his  soldier's  law,  and 
he  came  back  with  the  commands  of  the  Viceroy  for 
the  Colonel  to  sit  still  in  the  Castle,  and  mind  his  own 
business.  So  the  Colonel's  hands  are  tied  fast  for  him, 
and  the  gates  are  put  away,  and  forty  yards  of  the 
fortifications  broken  clean  down  and  thrown  into  the 
water,  and  poor  people  can  go  about  their  errands 
with  none  to  trouble  them,  and  land  the  brandy  and 
stow  the  woolpacks  in  your  honour's  vessels.  Och, 
it  is  the  English  Government  that  understands  the 
road  to  the  hearts  of  the  Irish  people.  Only  the 
day  I  sailed,  the  beautiful  new  church  was  opened 
where  the  school-house  was  I  tould  ye  of,  and  his 
Grace  and  fifty  of  his  clergy  came  in  for  the  occasion, 
spite  of  Penal  laws  and  Parliament.  They  marched 
through  the  streets  in  their  robes,  with  the  Blessed 
Cross  carried  before  them,  and  the  guns  were  fired  at 
the  battery  by  the  Mayor's  orders,  while  the  Colonel 
was  looking  on  out  of  the  window.  Ireland  is  a  fine 
country  after  all,  God  bless  it.  Them  English  will 
have  to  drop  us  by-and-bye  like  a  hot  potato  for  all 
they  do  and  say,  and  I'll  see  the  day  yet  when  your 
honour  will  be  home  again  among  your  own  people." 

The  prospect  of  changing  his  French  chateau  for 
what  was  left  of  his  ancestral  castle  on  Lough  Corrib 
either  seemed  to  Blake  more  remote  than  his  officer 
expected,  or  perhaps  in  itself  not  particularly  desirable. 
He  was  contented  to  know  that  the  English  were 
falling  back  into  their  usual  policy  of  weakening  their 
friends  and  attempting  to  conciliate  their  enemies,  and 
did  not  pursue  his  inquiries.  He  turned  abruptly  to 
another  subject. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  19 


"  This  passenger  of  yours  Dennis,  this  Sylvester,  I 
must  see  him,  but  I  would  like  to  know  what  he  is 
after.  How  did  you  come  by  him  ?  and  what  did  he 
say  to  you  to  make  you  take  him  on  board  ?  It  will 
be  a  round  lie,  whatever  it  was.  The  last  time  he  was 
here,  he  had  come  from  Paris  to  beg  a  passage  home. 
He  had  been  in  trouble  in  Dublin,  he  told  me,  for 
bringing  back  some  of  the  college  lads  out  of  heresy  to 
Holy  Church.  Parliament  law  had  made  it  felony, 
and  he  had  to  run  to  France  to  save  his  neck,  but  he 
wanted,  so  he  pretended,  to  see  his  friends  in  Kerry, 
and  he  begged  me  for  the  love  of  God  to  help  him 
over.  This  was  his  story  then,  and  the  fact  of  it  was 
that  he  was  employed  by  Walpole,  the  English 
Ambassador  in  Paris,  to  spy  into  our  trading  business, 
and  supply  the  Castle  with  information.  He  had 
volunteered  his  services,  the  villain !  and  he  had  a 
protection  in  his  pocket  at  that  moment  in  case  a 
Government  cruiser  fell  in  with  him." 

"  I  had  heard  something  of  this,  your  honour,"  said 
Dennis,  "  and  it  was  in  my  mind  when  he  asked  for  a 
passage  to  take  him  out  into  deep  water  and  drop 
him  over  the  side  with  a  shot  at  the  leg  of  him.  To 
hear  him  talk,  you  would  suppose  that  there  was  no 
truer  Irishman  in  the  four  Provinces.  If  hetould  lies  it 
was  for  the  good  cause,  and  for  one  lie  that  he  tould 
your  honour  he  tould  twenty  to  them  in  Dublin. 
But  I  don't  like  the  looks  of  him,  and  that  is  the 
truth  of  it." 

"You  don't  like  informers,  Denny.  I  don't  like 
them  either.  No  good  cause  was  ever  served  by 
lying.  He  that  is  false  to  one  is  false  to  all,  that  is 
my  experience.  Let  a  man  once  take  to  it,  'tis  like 
the  whiskey.     He  never  leaves  it  after.     If  I  might 


20  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

take  my  way  with  the  fellow,  I  would  ship  him  off 
to  the  plantations  in  Martinique.  How  came  he 
in    Gal  way  ?  " 

"  It  was  not  in  Galway  I  fell  in  with  him  at  all, 
your  honour.  Your  honour  was  expecting  wild-geese. 
As  there  were  none  in  Galway  I  looked  into  the 
Ken  mare  River  as  I  went  by.  I  thought  may  be 
there  would  be  a  flight  of  them  in  at  Kilmakilloge. 
Not  a  feather  there  either,  but  I  found  Mr.  Sylvester 
O'Sullivan  in  a  wild  way  about  the  old  Place  at 
Derrecn,  and  about  the  brother  of  him,  Macfinnan 
Dhu.  Sure  it  is  mighty  proud  they  are  of  their 
family  thim  Sullivans,  come  of  the  giants  that  was 
before  the  great  Flood  they  say,  and  if  anything  goes 
wrong  with  the  laste  of  the  race  they  think  the  world 
is  coming  to  an  end.  Well,  there  is  something  going 
wrong  with  Macfinnan  Dhu  just  now.  I  could  make 
little  out  of  his  talking,  but  any  way  Mr.  Sylvester 
prayed  me  for  the  love  of  God  and  the  Saints  to  take 
him  over  where  he  could  have  speech  with  Morty  Oge, 
him  that  was  with  the  Prince,  that  your  honour 
named  just  now  ;  he  said  he  was  in  Paris." 

"  If  he  wants  Morty  Sullivan,"  said  Blake,  "we  can 
pleasure  him  that  far.  Morty  is  in  Nantes  at  this 
moment,  and  will  be  here  at  breakfast  to-morrow.  If 
he  is  of  my  mind  he  won't  believe  too  much  of  what 
S34vester  may  say  to  him.  But  keep  your  man  under 
hatches,  till  I  send  for  him.  If  the  lads  in  the  town 
get  wind  of  the  rogue,  they  will  tar  and  feather  him, 
and  that  is  the  least  they  will  do." 


THE  TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


CHAPTER   III. 

In  a  small  but  handsomely  furnished  apartment  in 
the  chateau,  to  the  garden  oi  which  the  reader  has 
already  been  introduced,  two  gentlemen  were  sitting 
the  next  morning,  engaged  in  earnest  conversation  ; 
one  of  them  Mr.  Patrick  Blake,  the  owner  of  the 
establishment,  the  other  a  spare  sallow-complexioned 
man,  with  short  black  hair,  slightly  grizzled,  square 
features,  chin  clean  shaven,  a  heavy  moustache,  which 
hanging  from  the  upper  lip  concealed  the  mouth,  and 
the  hard  grey  eyes  of  the  dark  Celt  of  the  south  of 
Ireland.  His  age  might  be  forty  or  a  little  over. 
The  lines  of  his  face  were  firm  and  peremptory,  as 
of  a  soldier,  or  of  someone  accustomed  to  command. 
He  was  not  tall,  and  he  was  slightly  built ;  but  seated 
though  he  was  the  curves  of  loin  and  thigh  showed 
that  he  was  sinewy  and  active  like  a  leopard.  His 
small  spare  hands  would  have  served  as  models  for  a 
sculptor,  and  the  long  fingers  and  almond-shaped 
nails  indicated  birth  and  breeding.  He  was  dressed 
in  the  morning  costume  of  a  fashionable  Frenchman 
of  the  day,  who  might  be  either  officer  or  civilian,  but 
who,  if  in  the  army,  reserved  his  uniform  for  parade 
or  active  service,  and  when  off  duty  appeared  like  an 
ordinary  gentleman.  It  might  be  unsafe  to  guess  at 
his  calling,  but  it  was  easy  to  see  that  he  was  a  person 
of  consequence,  able,  resolute,  prompt  alike  with  mind 
and  hand,  and  one  whom  a  prudent  person  would 
sooner  have  for  a  friend  than  an  enemy. 


22  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


They  had  finished  breakfast,  and  had  drawn  their 
chairs  to  the  window,  which  opened  on  a  balcony  and 
overlooked  the  garden   and  the  river.     A  long  tele- 
scope stood  between  them  on  a  brass  pedestal.     They 
had  been  examining  through  it  a  singularly  beautiful 
vessel  which  was  lying  in  the  tide-way  at  half-a-mile 
distance.     She   was  three   hundred  tons  burden  and 
had  been  originally  a  brig,  but  Mr.    Blake  had  dis- 
covered that  the  fore-and-aft  rig  gave  advantages  in 
working  to  windward  which  were  of  supreme  import- 
ance when  speed  was  the  first  consideration.     He  had 
altered  her  after  a  fashion  of  his  own  into  something 
like  the  modern  schooner.  She  had  attracted  attention 
as  the  only  specimen    of  her   class   which   was   yet 
afloat,  and  opinions  had  been  divided  about  her  merits. 
The  old  seamen  shook  their  heads.     Those  who  had 
sailed  in  her  smiled  and  said  nothing,  but  were  always 
willing  to  try  their   fortunes  on   board  her  a  second 
time.     Her  freeboard  was  low.     In  the  waist  she  was 
not  more  than  four  feet  out  of  water.     Her  draught 
was  small,  her  bows  hollow,  her  beam,  which  was  not 
perceptible  as  she   lay  broadside  on,  was  evidently  of 
unusual    breadth.     Otherwise    she    could    not    have 
carried  the  enormous  spars   with  which  she  had  been 
furnished    on    the    alteration    of   her    rig,   and    the 
dimensions  of  which  appeared   the  more  extravagant 
as  her  sails  were  unbent  ;  her   standing  rigging  was 
not  set  up,  and    the  huge   sloping   masts   stood   out 
naked  to  the  eye.     She  was  called  a  trader,  but  that 
trade  was  not  her  only  business  might  be  inferred  as 
well  from  her  general   aspect  as  from  the  gun-slides 
which  were  plainly  visible  through  the  glass  upon  her 
deck.     The  most  ignorant  landsman  could  have  seen 
at  a  glance  that  she  was  meant  for  mischief     She  was 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  23 


laid  up,  as  it  was  called  ;  but  her  paint  was  fresh  and 
her  spars  were  scraped  and  varnished.  An  active 
crew  could  probably  fit  her  for  sea  in  a  few  days,  or 
even,  under  pressure,  in  a  few  hours. 

"  You  have  decided  then,"  said  Blake  in  a  tone  of 
disappointment,  and  at  the  close  of  what  had  been 
a  long  argument.  "  There  the  vessel  lies  for  you  and  you 
will  not  take  her,  and  you  decline  my  offer.  When 
the  Doutelle  was  a  brig,  no  ship  of  her  size  in  the 
English  service  was  a  match  for  her,  either  running 
or  on  a  wind.  You  and  I  owe  our  lives  to  the  style  in 
which  she  walked  away  from  the  frigate  when  I 
brought  you  and  Sheridan  back  from  Scotland.  In 
her  new  dress  she  has  added  two  knots  to  her  speed. 
The  world  is  before  you,  and  the  world's  enemy  to 
prey  upon.  You  can  serve  your  country,  and  you 
can  make  your  own  fortune  too.  Speak  the  word, 
and  never  rover  sailed  out  of  the  Loire  with  such  a 
ship  and  such  a  crew  as  I  can  furnish  you  with.  The 
strength  of  England  is  in  her  commerce  ;  strike  her 
there,  and  you  strike  at  her  heart.  Her  traders  are 
in  all  seas — east  and  west  they  will  lie  at  your  mercy. 
Her  own  Drakes  and  Morgans  never  made  such  a 
noise  in  the  world  as  you  may  make.  Thousands  of 
our  poor  countrymen  are  working  in  the  cane-fields  in 
Barbadoes  and  Antigua.  At  the  sight  of  you  they 
will  rise  and  cut  the  planters'  throats.  Had  I  your 
years,  Morty,  by  the  Saints  in  glory !  do  you  think  I'd 
be  dragging  out  my  life  over  ledgers  and  bills  of 
lading,  when  I  might  be  making  a  name  for  myself  as 
a  hero,  and  breaking  the  merchants'  houses  in  London 
by  the  losses  I'd  bring  them  to?  By  my  soul,  I'm 
half  minded  to  go  out  myself,  old  as  I  am  !  " 

"  I'd  be  sorry  for  your  sake,  Mr.  Blake,"  said  his 


24  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


companion,  "  to  see  you  off  on  any  such  errand.  You 
are  doing  very  well  as  you  are.  Let  alone  your  fine 
house,  and  your  gardens,  and  the  money  you  are 
piling  up,  you  are  breaking  a  larger  hole  in  the  Eng- 
lish Exchequer  every  year  with  your  wool  and 
brandy  trade  than  ever  I  could  do  with  the  Doiitelle's 
guns.  Your  place  is  where  you  are,  and  long  may 
you  live  to  fill  it.  But  there  is  a  question  I'd  like  to 
ask  you.  This  peace  that  they  have  made  at  Aix  ! 
will  it  last,  think  you — you  will  be  better  acquainted 
with  the  ways  of  the  politicians  than  I  can  be." 

"  It  will  not  last,"  answered  Blake  passionately,  "  It 
cannot  last.  Richelieu  says  it  cannot,  so  says  D'Argen- 
son,  so  says,  in  spite  of  herself  that  cooked  it  up,  his 
Majesty's  painted  Madam.  It  is  only  a  breathing 
time,  and  but  half  that.  Peace  or  no  Peace,  Dupleix 
means  to  have  the  British  out  of  India,  and  the  French 
in  Canada  mean  to  take  New  England  from  them. 
They  will  be  fighting  again  before  the  ink  is  dry  on 
the  signatures.  Here  at  home  there  will  be  war  once 
more  before  five  summers  have  gone  round,  and  in 
the  storm  that  is  brewing,  that  proud  Island  will  have 
the  feathers  plucked  out  of  her  at  last." 

"  I  trust  you  will  prove  a  true  prophet  in  that," 
said  Morty.  '*  But  five  years  !  Here  is  peace  but  just 
signed  ;  and  you  want  me  to  hoist  the  Black  Flag  in 
the  old  Doiitelle  and  go  to  sea  as  a  pirate,  in  the  hope 
that  when  five  years  are  gone  the  French  Govern- 
ment will  look  over  my  small  irregularities  for  the 
harm  I  may  have  done  the  English,  let  me  keep  my 
plunder,  and  perhaps  give  me  a  commission.  That  is 
the  plain  meaning  of  it,  and  piracy  is  not  so  reputable 
a  calling  as  it  used  to  be.  I  have  no  conscience  in 
the   matter.     The  partridge  is  the  food  of  the  hawk 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY.  25 


wherever  the  hawk  finds  him,  and  the  English  are  my 
natural  enemies.  But  peace  is  peace,  and  business  is 
business.  Suppose  I  take  a  West  Indiaman,  what  am  I 
to  do  with  her — where  am  I  to  sell  the  cargo,  how  am 
I  to  get  rid  of  the  crew  ?  " 

"  The  sea  is  deep,"  replied  Blake  coolly,  "  and  dead 
men  do  not  float  with  proper  ballast.  Send  the  ship 
to  the  bottom  and  the  crew  along  with  her.  If  you 
are  across  the  Atlantic,  they  will  buy  the  cargo  of  you 
at  Martinique  or  Hayti,  and  ask  you  no  more  questions 
than  you  please  to  answer.  If  you  are  this  side  bring 
it  here ;  or  ye  may  carry  it  to  Ireland,  if  you  will. 
Barring  Cork  and  Kinsale,  there  is  never  a  harbour  in 
Munster,  well  ye  know  it,  Mr.  Morty,  where  they 
would  not  welcome  the  sight  of  you  ;  and  if  it  was 
chests  of  gold  and  silver  ye  put  on  shore,  'twould  be 
as  safe  for  ye  as  in  my  own  counting-house,  and  devil 
a  word  would  ye  hear  from  high  or  low,  save  to  wish 
ye  God  speed.  With  their  trade  laws,  and  their  navi- 
gation laws,  it  is  little  help  the  English  will  find  there, 
from  gentle  or  simple.  They  robbed  us  of  our  land, 
they  robbed  us  of  our  religion,  or  tried  to  do  it.  Now 
they  are  robbing  their  own  Protestant  colony,  and 
they  have  brought  it  to  this,  that  no  Irishman  out  of 
Ulster,  Catholic  or  Protestant,  will  trouble  any  vessel 
that  may  be  dealing  with  the  people  there,  to  please 
the  British  Government. 

"My  friend  Blake,"  answered  Morty,  "  you  are  a  bold 
man,  and  a  sanguine,  but  your  position  and  mine  are 
not  precisely  the  same.  You  will  risk  your  vessel.  If 
you  lose  her  it  will  not  break  you.  I,  as  you  well 
know,  should  go  into  the  business  with  a  halter  about 
my  neck.  Doubtless  it  is  true,  as  you  say,  that  there 
is  little  love  left  for  the  English  in  the  old  country. 


26  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 


But  they  can  sail  their  ships,  and  they  can  fight  their 
ships,  as  the  French  know  to  their  cost.  Hawke  is 
not  a  fellow  to  play  with,  and  as  to  those  gentry  of 
ours  in  Cork  and  Kerry,  perhaps  I  know  them  as 
well  as  you  do.  You  say  I  might  land  chests  of  gold 
and  silver,  and  the  boys  there  might  be  trusted  to 
keep  it  safe  for  us.  Ask  the  Danes  what  they  think 
about  that.  How  many  years  is  it  since  the  Golden 
Lion  went  ashore  at  Ballyhige,  and  the  gentlemen  of 
Kerry  shared  the  bullion  chests  that  were  on  board 
her  among  themselves?  I  will  trust  Irishmen  as  long 
as  their  interest  and  mine  run  on  the  same  track,  but 
not  an  inch  further.  Suppose  I  did  as  you  would 
have  me,  there  would  be  a  smart  reward  offered  for 
the  taking  of  me,  dead  or  alive,  and  with  such  a  pro- 
clamation out  I'd  be  careful  how  I  stayed  very  long 
in  an  Irish  harbour." 

"  You  are  an  old  comrade,  Morty,"  Blake  answered, 
"  or  I  wouldn't  bear  to  hear  ye  speak  like  that.  As  for 
them  Danes,  'twas  the  Protestant  Archdeacon  and  the 
members  of  Parliament  that  stole  the  silver.  It  is 
not  yourself  that  I'd  expect  would  be  blackening  th-e 
character  of  your  own  race." 

"  I  say  no  more  than  the  truth  of  them,"  said  Morty. 
"  There  never  was  a  plan  for  a  rising  in  Ireland  yet, 
but  what  an  Irishman  was  found  who  would  sell  the 
secret  of  it.  More  shame  to  the  English  who  have 
made  us  what  we  are.  Many  a  wrong  they  have 
done  to  me  and  mine,  but  that  is  the  worst  of  the 
whole  ;  and  if  I  care  to  live  at  all,  it  is  to  pay  them 
back  some  part  of  that  debt  at  any  rate.  You  can 
bear  witness  for  me,  Blake,  that  I  have  not  flinched 
yet.  I  left  the  Austrians,  to  fight  the  English  at 
Fontenoy,    when     Lacy    would    have    given    me    a 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  Tj 


regiment.  I  went  with  Prince  Charles  to  Scotland 
because  you  would  have  me  go,  and  because  you  said 
I  should  make  the  Prince  a  friend  to  Ireland.  I  was 
at  his  side  at  Preston  Pans.  I  followed  him  to  Derby, 
and  if  the  Scots  would  have  let  him  take  my  counsel 
we  might  have  ridden  together  through  the  streets  of 
London.  I  went  with  him  on  his  retreat.  I  fought 
for  him  at  Falkirk.  I  fought  at  CuUoden.  I  will  say 
for  you  that  you  saved  me  from  the  consequences  of 
following  your  advice.  Had  you  not  come  to  my 
help  my  head  would  be  blackening  at  this  moment 
over  the  doors  of  the  Tolbooth  at  Edinburgh.  But 
what  was  the  use  of  it  all.  If  we  had  helped  the 
Prince  to  the  Throne  our  poor  country  would  have  been 
none  the  better.  There  is  no  truth  or  honesty  in  him. 
He  is  just  an  Englishman  like  the  rest.  When  we 
sailed  together  out  of  this  river,  who  was  readier  with 
his  promises  than  he?  Who  talked  more  glibly  of 
justice  to  Ireland  ?  Who  were  dearer  to  him  than  the 
Irish  Brigade  ?  It  lasted  till  Preston  fight  and  no 
longer.  He  was  then  in  a  fool's  paradise.  He  thought 
the  game  was  won.  He  told  me  himself  again  we 
should  have  justice.  Oh,  yes  !  justice.  But  he  could 
not  offend  the  Scots.  He  must  not  frighten  his  well- 
affected  subjects  in  England,  by  diminishing  the 
dignity  of  the  Crown.  Nay,  only  last  year,  when 
Louis  was  ready  to  venture  the  landing  of  an  army 
in  Galway  or  Limerick,  on  condition  that  if  the 
English  could  be  driven  out,  Ireland  was  to  be  an 
independent  country,  who  but  this  precious  Prince 
stood  in  the  way,  and  refused  his  consent  ?  Fair  and 
false  were  all  Stuarts.  The  First  James  planted  the 
accursed  colony  in  Ulster.  Charles  sent  Strafford  to 
clear  us  out  of  Con  naught,  and  when  we  stood  up  for 


28  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY 


him  against  the  ParHament,  he  played  fast  and  loose 
with  us  till  he  schemed  his  own  head  off  his  shoulders 
and  brought  on  Ireland  the  curse  of  Cromwell. 
Charles  the  Second  engaged  at  Breda  that  we  should 
have  our  lands  again,  and  all  we  got  for  serving  his 
father  was  the  Act  of  Settlement,  which  made  us 
beggars.  The  next  James  ran  at  the  Boyne  like  a 
whipped  cur,  and  if  we  had  won  at  Aghrim  the 
English  yoke  would  have  sate  never  the  lighter  upon 
us.  No,  Mr.  Patrick,  you  were  an  ill  counsellor  to  me 
that  day,  and  though  you  mean  well  I  fear  you  are  a 
worse  now  in  this  thing  you  are  advising  me  to  do.  No, 
no.  France  will  beat  the  English  one  of  these  days. 
She  will  dictate  peace  on  her  own  terms,  and  the  first 
of  them  will  be  Ireland's  freedom.  There  is  no  other 
road  to  it." 

"  If  I  want  to  build  a  wall,"  Blake  answered,  "  I  use 
the  stone  that  is  nearest  me.  It  may  not  be  the  best, 
but  it  is  the  handiest  to  come  by.  Them  Stuarts  may 
be  all  you  say,  but  it  was  the  best  card  we  had  to 
play,  and  if  the  Prince  had  taken  my  advice  and 
gone  to  Ireland,  maybe  he  would  have  had  better  luck 
with  him.  But  that  is  neither  here  nor  there.  You 
trust  now  to  France.  So  do  I,  but  the  French  will 
only  help  us  if  we  help  ourselves,  and  how  are  we 
to  do  that  ?  We  can't  fight  England  in  the  field,  we 
arc  too  divided  :  but  we  can  be  a  thorn  in  her  side. 
We  can  worry  her,  we  can  laugh  at  her  laws  and 
break  them.  We  can  keep  the  fire  smouldering  till 
we  choke  her  with  the  smoke  of  it.  She  can't  let 
loose  her  dragoons  to  cut  us  to  pieces  as  she  used  to 
do.  Her  own  hands  are  not  clean  enough,  and  the 
world  would  cry  shame  on  her.  She  is  mighty 
sensitive  about  the  world's  opinion.      Well,  then,  let 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  29 

us  show  France  that,  peace  or  no  peace,  there  will  be 
ahvays  war  between  us  and  the  EngHsh  ;  and  then,  as 
you  say,  our  turn  will  come.  But  we  must  do  our 
part  first,  and  I  want  you  to  do  yours.  Therefore  I 
say  to  you  again,  take  the  Doiitelle.  There  is  not  a 
man-of-war  or  frigate  in  the  English  navy  that  can 
catch  her,  try  it  how  they  will.  Hang  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Channel.  Lie  off  Liverpool,  or  off  the 
Thames  if  yo-u  will.  If  they  chase  you,  laugh  at 
them.  If  you  lose  a  spar  by  ill-luck,  or  want 
repairs,  come  back  here.  If  there  is  trouble  about  it, 
we  will  give  you  notice  to  be  off  in  good  time.  Go  to 
the  West  Indies  and  set  the  islands  on  fire.  Go  to  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  look  out  for  the  East  India 
men.  Sink,  burn,  destroy — you  will  find  plunder 
enough  that  you  can  carry  off  to  fill  your  own  coffers 
and  mine,  and  send  the  rest  to  the  bottom.  You  will 
drive  the  London  merchants  mad.  Sail  under  the 
French  flag,  and  never  fear  that  you  will  be  in  trouble 
for  it.  I  tell  you  again,  the  peace  won't  hold,  and 
you  yourself  will  help  to  break  it." 

"  And  swing  in  chains  myself  on  a  Deptford  gallows," 
said  Morty,  "  for  that  is  what  your  pirate  work  ends 
in,  and  a  fit  end  it  is.  Times  are  changed,  my  good 
friend.  Buccaneers  don't  conquer  kingdoms  any 
longer  and  get  thanked  by  their  sovereign.  Your 
pirate  now  is  a  public  enemy.  To  call  him  a  patriot 
does  not  alter  his  character." 


'Tis  not  the  Devil's  crest. 

"  I  have  been  proclaimed  traitor  in  England,  for 
joining  the  Prince,  and  there  has  been  a  price  set 
on  my  head  ;  but,  though   I  made  a   mistake.  I  did 


30  THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


nothing  which  dishonoured  me  as  a  gentleman,  and, 
at  my  age,  I  don't  wish  to  begin.  We  Irish  have  no 
good  name  in  the  world,  and  I  won't  make  it  worse,  if 
I  can  help  it.  And  besides,  my  dear  friend,  I  don't 
like  the  work  in  itself — killing  and  robbing  is  not  a 
pleasant  occupation.  And  the  crew  you  offer  to  pro- 
vide me  with  will  cut  my  throat,  unless  I  make  myself 
as  great  a  savage  as  themselves." 

"  And  what  do  you  intend  to  do  with  yourself,  most 
excellent  Morty,  since  you  will  not  take  my  offer  ? 
You  give  up  the  Stuarts — you  will  not  fight  the 
English  on  your  own  account — and  you  know  very 
well  that  an  open  rebellion  in  Ireland,  just  now,  is  im- 
possible. France  and  England  will  fight  again  by-and- 
bye,  perhaps  to-morrow,  perhaps  not  for  four  or  five 
years.  How  is  it  to  be  meanwhile  ?  Shall  I  take  )'OU 
into  my  counting-house  and  teach  you  to  mend  pens 
and  keep  ledgers  ?  " 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Morty.  "  But  we  are  on  good 
terms  nov/,  and,  maybe,  as  you  would  have  me  turn 
thief,  I'd  be  practising  my  lessons  on  your  cash-boxes, 
and  thus  we  might  quarrel.  No,  no.  I  am  a  soldier, 
and  I  shall  follow  my  own  trade,  as  my  betters  are 
doing.  Lacy  offers  me  a  place  on  his  staff,  in 
my  old  army.  Lally  is  going  to  India  to  help 
Dupleix,  and  will  take  me  with  him,  if  I  like.  In 
America,  as  you  tell  me,  there  is  work  going  on, 
or  again,  there  is  the  Don,  willing  to  engage  any 
number  of  us.  These  are  opportunities.  I  can 
choose  my  own  employment,  and  we  shall  be  doing 
best  service  to  our  own  country  and  to  our  own  cause, 
by  earning  fame  and  credit  under  the  great  Catholic 
powers." 

"  You    stand    much    upon     your    honour,    Morty 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  31 

Sullivan,"  answered  Blake  ;  "  and  it  would  be  un- 
fitting in  myself  to  be  blaming  you  for  that  same. 
Honour  is  a  fine  feather  when  it  is  not  draggled,  like 
the  plume  in  my  old  hat  here.  Indeed  as  the  world 
goes  it  is  a  rare  commodity,  and  them  that  has  it  are 
right  not  to  let  it  go.  By  the  same  token,  there  is 
one  of  your  name,  and  small  credit  is  he  to  the  family, 
if  all  tales  are  true,  that  is  at  this  moment  in  Nantes, 
and  is  asking  to  see  you.  Dennis,  the  master  of  the 
brigantine,  yonder,  brought  him  over  from  Kenmare. 
He  is  in  bad  favour  in  the  town,  about  some  informing 
business.  I  don't  properly  know  the  rights  of  it.  I 
told  Dennis  to  keep  him  on  board,  to  wait  your  con- 
venience, for  fear  harm  should  come  to  him.  If  you 
please,  they  shall  bring  the  fellow  on  shore." 

"  A  Sullivan  from  Kenmare  ?  "  said  Morty,  "  and 
to  see  me  ?     Who,  and  what  is  the  man  ?  " 

"  Sylvester  is  what  he  said  was  the  name  of  him 
when  he  came  to  me  some  }'ears  back,  and  that  is 
what  he  calls  himself  still." 

"  Sylvester  O'Sullivan  !  Sylvester  the  Scholar  ! 
Why,  he  must  be  my  own  kinsman — my  father's  first 
cousin  ;  he  that  taught  me  Latin  when  I  was  a  boy  at 
Derreen.  What  know  you  of  him,  that  you  speak  so 
coldly  ?  " 

"  It  is  some  ten  years  now,"  said  Blake,  "  since  he 
was  here  looking  for  me.  He  told  me  he  had  been  a 
teacher  in  Dublin.  He  had  fallen  into  trouble  under 
the  laws  a";ainst  the  Catholics,  and  had  been  in  danger 
of  his  life.  He  had  since  been  in  Paris.  By  that 
time,  he  supposed  all  would  be  forgotten,  and  they 
would  not  be  thinking  of  him  any  more,  so  he  wanted 
a  cast  back  to  see  his  family.  Dennis,  yonder,  took 
him  to  Valencia.     The  lads  cam.e  on  board  to  hoist 


32  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

out  the  brandy  casks,  and  as  Mr.  Sylvester  was 
shuffling  about  among  them,  he  dropped  a  paper  on 
the  deck.  Somebody  picked  it  up,  and  it  was  found 
to  be  a  pass  from  the  Enghsh  Minister  at  Paris.  The 
boys  thought  he  was  an  Informer,  and  I  believe  that 
is  what  he  was,  for  all  the  oaths  he  swore ;  and  they 
would  have  given  him  Kerry  law,  only  for  some  of  the 
O'SuUivans  who  happened  to  be  in  the  way,  and  went 
bail  for  him,  and  took  him  off  to  Killarney.  The 
next  I  heard  of  Tp,y  gentleman  was,  that  he  had  been 
caug;ht  sendinc:  a  letter  to  the  Castle,  tellino;  all  that 
he  had  learnt  about  our  trade  down  there,  and  who 
the  persons  were  that  were  concerned  in  it.  There 
was  a  fine  noise  ;  and  your  cousin,  as  you  say  he  is,  to 
save  the  life  of  him,  went  to  the  Protestant  Minister, 
and  got  received,  as  they  call  it,  into  the  heretic 
Church.  Not  a  good  record,  as  ye  will  see.  How  it 
ended  I  don't  know  ;  but  they  said  my  Lord  Fitz- 
maurice  set  him  in  the  stocks  for  a  vagabond,  and  the 
Killarney  lads  would  have  had  their  will  upon  him, 
but  that  he  found  friends  in  the  place.  Some  of  the 
young  Councils  from  Derrynane  beat  them  off,  and 
took  him  out  and  carried  him  away  over  the  moun- 
tains, and  that  is  the  last  I  heard  of  him  till  he  turned 
up  again  yesterday." 

"  Any  story  is  good  till  you  hear  the  other  side," 
said  Morty.  "  I  will  believe  that  a  Sullivan  has  been 
selling  his  country  and  his  soul  when  I  have  it  proved 
to  fne,  and  not  sooner — let  alone  one  so  near  in  blood 
to  the  chief  of  the  clan.  Sylvester  had  a  long  head 
of  his  own,  as  I  remember  him  ;  and  it  will  not  have 
grown  shorter  upon  him  with  age.  If  the  Councils 
were  his  friends,  I'll  give  my  own  bail  that  he  was 
after  nothing  but  putting  the  exciseman  off  the  track. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  33 

It  must  have  been  Maurice  Connell  that  stood  by 
him.  Dan  is  with  me  at  this  moment,  and  is  Hke  an 
own  brother  to  me.  No  better  lad  breathes  than 
Dan,  and  Maurice  is  the  twin  to  him.  Sylvester  will 
have  come  to  speak  with  me  about  my  poor  mother 
that  is  gone.  He'll  be  bringing  me  some  word  from 
her,  it  is  likely.  God  rest  her  soul  !  Kith  and  kin 
hold  fast  when  other  ties  are  broken.  Mother,  sister, 
the  old  place,  the  old  days  !  How  clear  and  bright 
the  picture  of  it  all  hangs  in  the  memory,  when  all 
else  is  gone  to  dust  and  vapour." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  WHISTLE  from  the  window  summoned  Dennis  from 
the  stairs  below  the  garden.  Receiving  a  brief  order, 
he  paddled  back  to  his  vessel,  and  presently  re- 
appeared, bringing  his  guest,  or  his  prisoner,  for  he 
more  nearly  resembled  the  latter,  along  with  him. 
The  look  of  the  man  as  he  was  introduced  into 
the  room,  entirely  justified  the  ill  opinion  of  him 
which  Blake,  notwithstanding  Morty's  protestations, 
evidently  continued  to  entertain.  He  was  an  under- 
sized, mean-looking  being,  perhaps  sixty  years  old, 
and  he  appeared  more  abject  than  he  really  was,  from 
the  manner  in  which  he  carried  himself  Dennis  had 
wrapped  him  in  a  pilot  ccat,  which  was  too  large  for 
him,  and  came  almost  to  the  ground.  Only  half  his 
countenance  was  visible  above  the  collar,  as  if  the  rest 
was  afraid  to  show  itself,  and  his  feet  shuffled  about  in 
his  heavy  sea-boots  like  shrivelled  nuts  in  their  shells. 
His  hair,  which  in  spite  of  his  age  was  still  coal  black, 
fell  straight  and  thin  over  his  forehead.  His  features, 
once  clearly  and  delicately  cut,  had  become  shapeless 

3 


34  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY, 

and  unmeaning.  His  mouth  was  a  slit  or  gash  across 
the  face,  and  Hps  he  had  none.  His  eyes  of  greenish- 
brown  were  vacant  and  lustreless,  as  if  staring  into 
space,  and  seeing  nothing,  and  only  an  occasional  un- 
easy glance  betra}'ed  that  he  was  conscious  of  what 
was  round  him.  He  gazed  stolidly  for  a  moment  at 
Morty,  whom  he  did  not  expect  to  find,  and  therefore 
naturally  did  not  recognise.  He  then  turned  to  Blake 
like  a  convicted  criminal. 

"  Well,  Mr.  Sylvester,"  said  the  merchant,  "  so  here 
you  are  again.  You  are  a  cunning  old  fox,  but  you 
may  run  j^our  head  into  a  noose  once  too  often.  Do 
you  remember  the  last  occasion  when  you  were  in  this 
room  ?  " 

"  I  do,  and  well,  your  honour,  and  a  beautiful  room 
it  is.  And  good  your  honour  was  to  me  that  same 
time." 

"Good  was  I,"  said  Blake,  "and  what  are  you  I'd 
like  to  know  ?  You  came  to  me  with  a  fine  story  of 
all  ye'd  done  and  all  j-e'd  suffered  for  your  country. 
You  wanted  me  to  send  you  home  to  Kerry,  to  your 
family  there,  and  all  the  while  there  was  black  trea- 
chery in  the  heart  of  you.  You  were  an  informer, 
man,  and  had  sould  yourself  to  them  in  the  Castle  of 
Dublin." 

"  Your  honour  speaks  nothing  but  the  truth,"  said 
the  man,  "  so  far  as  the  truth  is  known  to  ye.  Sure 
enough  I  had  the  bit  of  paper  Mr.  Walpole  giv  me,  if 
it  is  that  ye  mane.  I'd  be  none  the  worse  for  such  a 
thing  if  the  magistrates  got  hold  upon  me,  as  it  was 
like  they  might  with  the  errand  I  had  taken  upon  me. 
But  the  way  of  it  was  this.  I  was  wanting  to  go 
home  to  my  own  people,  and  there  was  a  stir  just 
then  about  the  trade,  and  the  Danes'  treasure,  and  the 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  35 

wild-geese,  and  the  French  going  over  ;  and  they  were 
saying  in  Paris  the  Enghsh  would  be  sending  the  led- 
coats  to  sweep  the  country  clear  of  the  whole  of  us, 
and  I  thought  I  would  be  useful  decaving  them  a 
little,  and  making  distrust  between  them  and  the 
gintry  like." 

"  That  might  suit  with  ye  as  a  rogue's  trick,"  said 
Blake,  "  but  if  that  was  what  ye  were  after,  why  did 
you  not  speak  plainly  to  me  ?  I  don't  believe  ye. 
There  was  that  letter  ye  wrote  from  Killarney  to  the 
Castle.  How  do  you  explain  that  ?  telling  them  how 
ye  had  come  over,  and  how  the  cargo  was  run." 

"  Sure  and  if  I  tould  them,"  said  Sylvester,  "  there 
was  never  a  word  of  truth  in  the  whole  story  I  tould 
them.  It  was  little  they  could  learn  from  me,  clever 
as  they  might  be  ;  and  as  to  speaking  out  to  your 
honour,  there  is  an  old  saying  that  one  may  keep 
counsel,  but  never  two,  and  I  thought  maybe  some  of 
them  Paris  people  might  be  asking  ye  questions  about 
me,  and  your  honour  would  not  tell  what  yo.  did  not 
know." 

Blake  looked  at  the  wretched  being,  hardly  know- 
ing whether  to  laugh  or  be  angry. 

"  And  how  about  your  turning  Protestant  ?"  he  asked, 
"  and  forsaking  the  faith  you  were  born  in  ?  One  of 
my  own  people  saw  you  in  Killarney  church,  swearing 
away  your  religion  before  the  Archdeacon." 

"  Sure  and  if  I  did,  your  honour,  there  is  no  sin  in 
telling  a  lie  to  a  heretic.  It  is  no  more  than  every 
poor  fellow  is  obliged  to  do  in  these  bad  days,  each 
time  he  signs  a  lease  on  him,  or  takes  an  office.  Don't 
the  Catholic  counsellors  in  Dublin  swear  they  arc 
Protestants  before  they  can  practise  ;  Glory  be  to  God 
for  that  same ;   for  where  would   our  poor  people  be 

3* 


36  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY, 

without  the  help  of  them  in  the  courts  of  law  ?  When 
the  laws  are  against  us  we  must  just  slip  through 
them  as  we  can  ;  the  Lord  help  us  and  be  gracious 
to  us." 

"  So  you  mean  you  were  lying  all  round  ? "  said 
Blake.  "  You  gave  information  and  it  was  false,  and 
they  paid  you  money  for  it  which  you  put  in  your 
pocket  ? " 

"  Indeed,  and  I  did,  your  honour,  and  where  is  the 
harm  for  the  good  cause  ?  I  went  back  to  live  at  my 
old  place,  and  it  is  a  little  reward  that  I  had  from  the 
Castle  to  send  them  word  when  the  boys  were  abroad. 
Never  a  lad  came  to  hurt  or  a  cargo  to  be  taken  for 
anything  they  ever  learnt  from  me,  and  the  money  was 
good  anyway.  But  your  honour  is  making  me  speak 
out  mighty  plain  before  strangers,"  and  he  looked  un- 
easily at  Morty,  in  whose  face  contempt  and  disgust 
were  strongly  mixed  with  interest. 

"  Have  no  fear  of  my  friend,"  the  merchant  said. 
"  What  is  the  business  which  has  brought  you  over  ?  " 

"  I  was  wishing  to  spake  a  word  with  a  relation  of 
my  own,"  Sylvester  answered.  "  Your  honour  knows 
him.  Morty  Oge,  I  mane.  Him  that  went  with  the 
Prince.  They  say  he  is  in  Paris,  and  I  supposed  may 
be  your  honour  might  help  me  to  the  sight  of  him." 

"  Morty  Oge  is  not  in  Paris,"  replied  Blake.  "  He 
sits  there  in  front  of  you." 

Sylvester  started  as  if  he  had  been  shot.  The  dull 
listless  manner  disappeared.  The  decrepit  figure 
quivered  with  life.  The  eyes  fastened  hungrily  on  the 
face  before  him  as  if  he  would  read  every  line  of  it. 
For  a  few  seconds  he  doubted,  then  flung  himself  on 
his  knees,  clasped  Morty  in  his  arms,  threw  his  head 
upon  his  breast  and  sobbed  convulsively. 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  37 


"  It's  himself,"  he  cried.  "  It  is  my  own  boy  after 
all  these  years.  The  Saints  preserve  us  !  Who  ever 
saw  the'  like  of  it  ?  But  speak  to  me,  Morty.  Speak 
to  me  that  I  may  hear  the  voice  of  ye,  for  you  are 
strangely  changed." 

"  Twenty  years  have  changed  us  both,"  Morty  said, 
"  but  your  kinsman  it  is,  or  all  that  you  will  ever  see 
of  him  ;  by  the  same  token  you'll  remember  how  you 
taught  me  my  Classics  on  the  old  rock  at  Derreen,  and 
carved  the  sundial  in  the  stone  for  me  that  will  be 
there  to  this  day  ;  how  you  tied  the  brown  fly  for  me 
that  caught  the  big  salmon  in  Glanmore  Lake,  when  I 
was  a  small  spalpeen  no  higher  than  my  leg." 

"  It  is— it  is  his  very  self,"  sobbed  Sylvester, 
devouring  Morty  with  eyes  from  which  the  tears  were 
running.  "  Twenty-five  years  !  and  you  look  so  grand 
and  powerful  like,  and  you  have  been  in  the  wars  with 
the  princes  and  the  generals  ;  and  your  own  mother, 
that  is  in  glory,  wouldn't  have  known  ye  till  ye  spoke  ; 
and  now  you  are  given  back  to  us,  and  the  Blessed 
Virgin  will  bring  ye  safe  home." 

"Home?"  said  Morty.  "Well,  I  don't  know.  I 
have  need  of  m.y  head  for  my  own  uses,  and  there  is 
a  price  upon  it  since  that  Scotch  business.  I  am 
much  attached  to  my  countrymen,  but  if  they  like 
nothing  else  that  is  British  they  like  British  gold  ; 
they  might  serve  me  as  they  served  the  Desmond." 

"  I  won't  say,  your  honour,  but  such  things  there 
may  be  in  Ireland.  It  comes  of  having  the  Saxons 
among  us.  They  are  infected  like  with  the  plague, 
and  honest  men  catch  it  of  them.  But  your  honour 
will  be  as  safe  in  Kerry  as  in  the  King's  palace  at 
Versailles,  and  safer,  too,  if  all  tales  are  true  ;  and 
oh!    Morty,   you    are   sorely  needed.     It    is  broken- 


38  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

hearted  we  are  for  the  want  of  you,  and  yourself  the 
chief  of  the  name.  If  ye  stay  longer  from  us  the 
last  Sullivan  will  soon  be  gone  out  of  Tuosist." 

"  Not  while  Macfinnan  lives  and  reigns  at  Derreen," 
said  Morty,  "  and  he  would  be  a  bold  lad  that  took 
the  lands  in  Kilmakilloge,  if  they  put  Macfinnan  out. 
And  sure  they  can't  put  him  out.  He  holds  under 
the  lease,  and  he  had  a  son,  I  heard.  They  called 
him  Mick.  He  will  be  growing  into  a  man  by 
now." 

"  Indeed,  then,  that  is  what  we  fear  Mick  will  never 
grow  into,  at  all  at  all.  Macfinnan  is  well  enough, 
but  Mick  was  changed  at  the  cradle,  or  there  is  water 
in  the  heart  of  him  where  blood  should  be.  He  is  a 
stout  youth  to  look  at,  but  he  goes  about  the  woods 
hanging  the  head  of  him,  or  whistling  to  the  seals  or 
the  like,  and  never  a  stroke  in  his  arm  for  play  or 
anger.  We  had  better  hopes  of  him  last  Michaelmas. 
'Twas  Fair  day  up  at  Kenmare,  and  the  gentry  were 
eating  their  dinner  at  the  Inn,  and  Mick  along  with 
them.  Mr.  Orpen  was  saucy  like,  and  Mick  (he  had 
a  glass  of  whiskey  in  him  that  time,  and  he  wasn't 
used  to  it)  gave  him  back  the  words  he  used.  So  it 
was  settled  there  was  to  be  a  fight  on  the  bridge  the 
next  day,  and  all  the  town  was  to  be  there  to  see. 
Macfinnan  was  pleased  to  see  the  lad  had  mettle  in 
him,  but  he  had  no  great  expectation  of  how  he  would 
come  out  of  it.  He  gave  him  his  own  pistols  that  he 
shot  the  Councillor  with  at  the  Assizes  at  Tralee. 
There  are  twenty  notches  in  the  handles  of  them,  and 
each  notch  stands  for  a  man's  life.  But  he  feared  the 
worst.  He  had  his  wake  made  ready  for  him  against 
he  was  brought  back.  And  he  was  near  needing 
it,  poor  Mick !     Orpen    shot  him    through   the   foot, 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS  OF  DUNBOY.  39 

and  he  came  limping  back  and  carries   his  head  no 
higher,  and  it  is  a  sore  trial  to  the  family." 

Morty  laughed.  "  You  see,  Blake,"  he  said,  "  an 
O'Sullivan  must  do  credit  to  his  breeding  or  they  won't 
acknowledge  him.  His  father  must  send  him  over  to 
me.  I  will  make  a  man  of  him  yet.  Or,  if  the  worst 
come,  an  old  race  does  not  go  out  because  a  single 
boy  is  born  with  a  woman's  soul  in  him.  One  eyrie 
may  be  empty,  but  there  will  be  eagles  still  soaring  on 
Knockowen." 

"  You're  mistaking  me,  entirely,"  Sylvester  said.  "  If 
that  was  the  worst  of  it,  we'd  do  yet,  but  there  is  a 
black  purpose  against  the  whole  of  us.  Ye  will  mind 
the  colonies  of  Protestants  old  Sir  William  Petty  set 
along  the  Kenmare  River.  He  was  trying  to  plant 
Kerry  as  they  planted  the  North,  and  fine  work  we 
had  to  clear  them  out  again  after  Sir  William  was 
gone.  Ye  were  yourself  a  child  when  the  end  came 
to  all  that,  and  ye  will  not  remember  it  ;  but  you  will 
recollect  the  fish  houses  Sir  William  left  at  Colorus, 
and  the  watercourses  up  the  valley,  and  the  great 
heaps  of  slag  where  the  furnaces  were.  'Twas  many 
years  the  strangers  were  among  us,  but  they  got  no 
help  from  home,  and  we  were  at  them  day  and  night 
to  make  the  place  uneasy  to  them." 

"  Well,  and  what  of  it  ?  "  said  Morty.  "  They  were 
got  rid  of,  and  there  was  an  end.  They  are  not 
coming  back,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  Indeed,  but  they  are,  and  the  Divil's  work  m  the 
train  of  them,"  Sylvester  answered.  "  There  is  to  be 
a  new  Colony,  and  either  the  Colony  will  clear  the 
Irish  out,  or  the  Irish  must  clear  the  Colony  out  again, 
and  this  is  what  I'd  be  wishing  to  speak  to  ye  about. 
I'll  tell  you  how  it  is.     When  Sir  William's  people 


40  THE   TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


went  out  they  gave  the  Macfinnans  back  the  glen  with 
the  lase  for  the  three  lives.  Well,  the  ould  Macfinnan, 
he  that  had  the  lase  first,  your  grandfather  that  was, 
got  a  ball  through  his  body  at  Mallow  races. 
Your  uncle,  that  was  the  next,  your  mother's  brother, 
shortened  his  life  with  the  whiskey.  Then  came  Mac- 
finnan Dhu,  that  now  reigns,  may  the  Lord  spare  him 
to  us !  but  he  is  growing  old,  and  has  not  long  to 
remain.  Well,  as  you  know,  they  have  been  a  careless 
race.  The  agent  was  always  telling  them  to  fill  in 
names  for  those  that  had  dropped.  Your  uncle  was 
troubled  in  his  conscience  for  the  oaths  that  he  had 
sworn,  and  didn't  like  to  be  repeating  them,  and  when 
my  cousin  came  there  were  fines  to  be  paid  if  the  lase 
was  renev/ed,  and  the  m^oney  was  not  over  plenty  with 
him.  The  people  were  talking  that  the  laws  would  be 
changed,  and  he  would  have  his  own  back  again,  and 
where  would  be  the  use  of  his  calling  himself  a 
Protestant,  when  in  a  few  years  they  would  be  all 
gone  out  of  the  Island  ?  So  he  put  it  off,  and  let  the 
time  go  by,  and  now  what  does  the  ould  Earl  do  ? — 
that  is  Petty's  son  they  have  made  a  Lord  of — but 
sends  word  that  when  Macfinnan  dies  and  the  lase 
falls,  they  will  take  the  place  into  their  own  hands." 

"  And  what  does  the  Earl  want  in  Tuosist  ?  "  said 
Morty.  "Has  he  not  lands  enough  in  England? 
Has  he  not  tens  of  thousands  of  acres  among  the 
lime-stone  pastures  of  Meath  and  Dublin,  that  he 
grudges  the  Sullivans  the  rocks  and  bogs  of  Kilma- 
killoge  ?  Will  he  plant  his  wheat-crops  on  Knockatee 
or  make  a  deer  park  in  Glenrastel  and  Glenatrasna  ? 
Poor  man !  It  is  a  short  life  any  Earl's  steward 
would  have  at  Derreen." 

"  Ye  are  not  believing  me,  Morty,  but  ye  will  have 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV.  41 

to  believe  me  before  all  is  said.  It  was  the  English 
Government  that  first  complained,  at  the  time  when 
the  fright  was  about  the  French  coming.  They  said  it 
was  a  scandal  that  Lord  Shelbourne's  estate  should 
be  a  harbour  of  rogues  and  Rapparees.  They  bade 
him  remember  his  father,  and  what  Sir  William  had 
done  on  these  same  lands.  Maybe  ye  now  don't 
know  rightly  how  it  was.  When  old  Petty  got  the 
great  grant  from  Cromwell,  ninety  years  back,  and 
our  people  were  driven  out,  and  there  were  red  coats 
in  Killarney,  and  none  left  in  Tuosist  save  a  few  poor 
creatures  in  the  Glins,  Sir  William  was  thinking 
how  he  would  turn  to  profit  what  he  had  got,  and  a 
clever  man  he  was — may  his  sins  be  remembered  to 
him  !  The  country  was  covered  then  with  forest.  A 
squirrel  could  run  from  Glanmore  to  Glanatrasna  and 
never  touch  the  earth.  Sir  William  brought  down 
hundreds  of  strangers,  English,  Scotch,  French, 
Flemings,  all  sorts,  and  all  were  welcome  if  they  were 
heretics  and  knew  how  to  work.  He  had  a  settle- 
ment at  Kenmare,  and  a  settlement  at  Iverach  and 
Blackwater,  and  a  great  settlement  down  in  Kilma- 
killoge.  He  set  up  smelting  furnaces  to  melt  the 
copper  ore.  He  made  a  harbour  at  Buna.  He  had 
a  cod  and  herring  fishery,  and  a  ship  and  boat  yard, 
and  all  the  place  was  full  of  vessels  coming  and 
going.  There  was  a  power  of  money  made  that  time, 
and  the  settlers  had  their  wives,  and  the  children 
grew  like  rabbits  in  the  sand-hills.  Divil  a  yard  of 
ground  would  have  been  left  for  any  poor  Irishman  if 
old  Petty  had  had  his  way.  The  war  came  and  the 
troubles,  and  the  O'Donoghue  lads  cleared  them  out  of 
Kenmare,  but  they  held  on  down  the  bay,  till  the 
Dutchman  landed  and  we  lost  the  day." 


42  THE  TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

"This  is  a  long  story,"  interrupted  Blake,  im- 
patiently. "  What  is  the  use  of  croaking  like  a  sick 
raven  ?  If  the  English  could  do  all  that  in  Killma- 
killoge,  why  don't  you  set  to  work  yourselves,  and  do 
as  well  or  better  ?  Tell  us  what  the  Earl  as  you  call 
him  is  after  now,  and  be  short  with  it." 

"  'Deed  it  is  hard  to  be  short  with  the  country's 
sorrows  ;  they  are  long  enough  any  way.  But  I'll  let 
you  have  the  whole  of  it  as  ye  will.  Sir  William  died 
that  had  set  going  all  this  industry  as  they  called  it. 
His  son  went  to  England,  and  had  other  things  to  think 
about.  The  Protestants  in  the  colony  now  felt  quite  asy 
like,  unless  that  a  Catholic  Prince  might  come  back  after 
ail  and  turn  them  all  out.  They  held  on.  They  had 
a  fine  trade.  They  had  mills  on  the  rivers,  and  they 
made  cloths  and  blankets  ;  and  they  built  their  own 
ships,  and  they  were  too  strong  for  us  altogether. 
But  the  Lord  in  His  mercy  put  into  the  hearts  of  the 
London  Parliament  to  do  for  us  what  we  could  not 
have  done  for  ourselves.  They  were  afraid  the 
people  that  they  had  sent  over  would  be  doing  better 
than  was  convenient  to  them  to  allow,  so  they  shut 
their  mills  up  and  their  yards.  /\nd  the  Parliament  in 
Dublin  was  not  behind-hand.  Good  for  the  soul  it  is 
to  watch  how  the  Lord  plays  the  Divil  with  them 
heretics.  You'd  think  that  living  here,  among  a 
people  that  have  no  liking  for  them,  they  would  keep 
the  peace  among  themselves.  Sure  they  are  as  like 
one  another  in  the  eyes  of  a  Catholic  as  thim  black 
boys  in  your  garden,  Mr.  Blake.  But  the  Protestant 
Bishops,  and  the  Lords  and  Gentry  in  Parliament  didn't 
choose  to  be  confounded  with  Puritans  and  such  like. 
So  they  shut  their  chapels  and  their  schools  up,  and 
treated  them  as  if  thjy  -vere  no  better  than  dogs.     I 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  43 

was  a  lad  then,  but  I  remember  it  well.     There  was  a 
glad  heart  in  every  honest  Irishman  that  day." 

Patience  was  not  one  of  Blake's  virtues.  "  Get  on 
with  you  and  come  to  the  point,"  he  said.  "What 
has  all  this  to  do  with  the  Sullivans  at  Kilma- 
killoge  ?  " 

"Just  this,  your  honour,  if  you  will  plase  to  listen 
to  me.  Them  Protestants  Sir  William  brought  were 
all  mechanics,  and  farmers,  and  fishermen,  and  the 
like.  They  thought  that  the  Bishops  that  the  King 
makes  were  not  bishops  at  all,  and  the  Bishops' 
Church  no  better  than  the  Catholic.  They  had 
their  own  ministers  and  their  own  churches,  and  the 
law  came  and  said  they  should  not  have  them  any 
more.  And  so,  with  the  one  thing  and  the  other,  they 
wouldn't  have  it,  and  the  most  of  them  left  all  they 
had  and  took  themselves  away.  They  were  to  go  to 
the  Parish  Church,  the  law  said,  and  how  would  they 
be  doing  that  I  wonder,  when  there  were  not  half  a 
dozen  churches  in  all  Kerry  with  a  roof  over  them  ?  " 

"  There  is  a  Protestant  Church  at  Killarney  that 
yourself  has  made  acquaintance  with,  Mr.  Sylvester," 
said  Blake  maliciously. 

"  Ah  now,  Mr.  Blake,"  said  Sylvester,  "  what's  the 
use  of  delaying  me  with  speaking  of  what  is  no 
concern  to  anybody,  and  his  honour  waiting  all  this 
while  to  hear  what  I  have  to  tell  him  ?  " 

"  You  have  told  me  nothing  yet,"  Morty  observed, 
"  beyond  what  I  have  heard  in  my  cradle." 

"  Ye  are  right  in  that.  'Twas  in  5^our  cradle  you 
were  at  that  time,  and  maybe  }'0U  never  rightly  un- 
derstood how  it  was.  There  were  five  hundred 
Protestants  on  the  land  that  the  Sullivans  had.  And 
they   were   growing   every   year    stronger,   and    you 


44  THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY, 

would  have  thought  we  would  never  be  rid  of  them 
more,  when  thim  laws  broke  them  up,  and  the 
settlement  came  to  an  end.  They  went  away  fifty 
years  back  now,  and  they  left  nothing  behind  them 
but  their  mill  walls  and  their  watercourses.  The  Earl 
that  came  after  Sir  William  was  for  a  quiet  life,  and 
he  put  your  grandfather  back  in  the  old  place  ;  and 
the  Sullivans  came  home  again,  and  from  that  day  to 
this  there  has  not  been  a  Barony  in  all  Ireland  where 
the  true  friends  of  the  country  find  a  better  welcome 
or  a  pleasanter  life.  There  }'Our  grandfather  reigned, 
and  your  uncle  that  was,  and  now  Macfinnan  Dhu, 
and  never  an  exciseman  shewed  the  face  of  him  in 
Tuosist,  nor  constable  coming  to  trouble  poor  fellows 
about  what  may  be  they  couldn't  answer  convaniently, 
nor  Informer  either." 

"  Always  excepting  yourself,  Sylvester,"  said  Blake. 

"  Be  asy  with  your  joking,  Mr.  Blake.  Well,  I  say 
since  that  day  no  servant  of  the  Castle  has  set  foot  in 
the  Barony ;  and  the  rint  was  paid,  and  fair  and  easy 
it  was,  and  if  it  was  not  ready  to  the  day  or  the  year, 
no  question  was  asked,  for  it  was  gintleman  daling 
with  gintlemian.  And,  barring  Galway,  there  is  not  a 
Bay  in  the  whole  country  where  more  wool  has  been 
run  out,  and  more  brandy  and  claret  run  in,  and 
where  the  French  officers  that  have  come  recruiting 
have  found  better  entertainment ;  and  that  yourself 
knows,  Mr.  Blake.     Nobody  better." 

"  I  have  nothing  to  say  against  that,"  Blake 
wearily  answered.  "  But  your  story  is  as  long  as  the 
big  snake  whose  tail  v/as  in  Gougaun  Barra  Lake  when 
his  head  was  going  out  of  Cork  harbour." 

"  We  have  come  to  the  tail  now,  and  that  is  where 
the  sting  is  you  will  find.     You  have  heard  belike  of 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  45 

the  great  Annesley  law  case,  ths.t  made  the  fortunes 
of  half  the  lawyers  in  the  Four  Courts.  They  took 
our  property  away  because  we  were  not  fit  to  hould 
it,  and  I'd  like  ye  to  find  in  the  wide  world  such  a  set 
of  blackguards  as  some  of  them  they  put  in  the 
places  of  us.  Lord  Annesley  had  the  lands  that 
reached  from  Bantry  out  to  Dursey  Island,  with  a  deal 
besides  elsewhere.  He  died  and  left  a  son,  but  the 
brother  of  him  took  the  estate,  for  he  said  the  boy 
was  a  bastard,  and  he  had  him  kidnapped  and  sold  as 
a  slave  in  the  American  plantations.  He  comes  back 
fifteen  years  after  and  claims  the  lands,  and  it  was  up 
and  down,  one  Court  saying  one  thing,  and  another 
another,  till  the  Counsellors  had  eaten  the  worth  of  it, 
and  the  little  that  was  left  came  to  be  divided. 

"  The  best  part  of  the  Bantry  estate  went  to  Mr. 
White,  that  you  will  have  heard  of  The  lands  at 
Berehaven  and  Dunboy  Castle,  your  own  place,  Morty, 
and  the  home  of  your  fathers,  fell  to  one  Goring, 
connected  in  some  way  with  the  Northern  Irish, 
and  a  relation  of  the  lord  that  was  gone.  It  was 
little  he  got  by  it,  for  the  Annesleys  were  a  thriftless 
set,  and  it  was  all  tied  up  in  leases  and  mortgages  ; 
but  he  was  a  harmless  creature.  He  just  let  things  go 
as  they  were,  and  no  one  had  a  word  to  say  of  him 
good  or  ill,  till  four  years  ago  he  died,  and  Dunboy 
fell  to  his  brother,  the  Colonel." 

At  the  name  of  Colonel  Goring,  Morty  and  Blake 
exchanged  glances  of  some  surprise,  and  listened  with 
increased  interest  as  Sylvester  continued : 

"  The  Colonel  (he  was  captain  then)  was  in  the 
same  regiment  with  Colonel  Eyre,  and  as  like  they 
were  as  a  pair  of  sparrow  hawks.  They  were  at 
Culloden  togetherj^gatHrh^fi>>l;he  Duke  sent  Eyre  to 


46  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV. 

Galway,  Goring  went* with  him,  and  fine  work  they 
made  between  them,  restoring  order  as  they  called  it. 
The  English  had  the  fright  on  them,  and,  by-and-bye, 
when  Goring  gets  the  Berehaven  Estate,  they  told 
him  he  was  to  do  the  same  work  down  there.  So  they 
made  him  a  revenue  officer.  They  gave  him  a  power 
of  men  under  him,  with  command  of  a  hundred  miles 
of  the  coast ;  and  who  but  he  was  to  make  a  sweep  of 
the  whole  country  ?  The  brother  that  was  before  him 
was  a  soft  kind  of  gentleman.  Never  a  boy  or  man  was 
troubled  for  running  his  bit  of  cargo  while  he  lived 
and  ruled.  But  the  Colonel,  so  they  called  him,  after 
he  came  down  among  us,  he  was  like  one  of  Crom- 
well's troopers,  the  Lord  confound  them  !  with  a  sword 
in  one  hand  and  a  pistol  in  the  other,  and  the  Bible 
on  the  lips  of  him.  Ye  will  mind  yourself  how  it 
was,  Mr.  Blake,  four  years  back.  Never  one  of  your 
vessels  could  be  seen  off  the  coast,  but  what  Goring 
would  be  looking  out  with  his  boats  and  his  English 
divils  along  with -him.  And  the  worst  was  what  came 
to  your  own  flesh  and  blood,  Morty,  for  Dursey  Island 
was  part  of  the  property  that  came  to  him.  The  old 
Castle  was  standing  at  that  time  on  the  Sound,  and 
'twas  there  your  own  mother  was  living,  and  }^our 
sister  with  the  child  she  was  left  with  when  her 
husband,  Donnell  Mahony'3  son  that  was,  died.  And, 
Morty,  you  know  your  mother  is  gone,  but  you  will 
not  have  heard,  maybe,  how  it  was  that  she  was 
taken.  The  Colonel  put  her  out  under  pretences  that 
she  was  sheltering  the  smugglers  there,  and  he  mvs^ 
have  the  Castle  pulled  down  ;  and  they  had  to  go  in 
the  winter  storms  to  the  ould  place  at  Eyris,  and 
that  is  all  that  is  left  to  you,  Morty,  of  the  lands  that 
were  your  fathers'.      There  your  mother  died,  God 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  47 

rest  her  soul !  and  there  your  sister  lives  now  all  alone 
with  her  boy ;  and  a  rough  place  it  is  for  her  that  was 
bred  like  a  lady,  with  the  wild  lads  that  come  and  go 
there." 

Sylvester  had  no  longer  to  complain  of  want  of 
attention  in  one,  at  least,  of  his  hearers.  Morty  was 
hanging  passionately  upon  his  words. 

"  My  mother ! "  he  muttered  between  his  teeth. 
"  And  I  far  far  away  that  should  have  sheltered  her 
last  years.  Strange,"  he  said,  "  that  this  same  man 
should  cross  my  path  again.  He  it  was  that  caught 
me  and  Sheridan,  and  would  have  shot  us  ;  and  he 
now  reigns  at  Dunboy  and  makes  war  on  women  and 
children  !  Why  is  the  wretch  alive  }  Why  have  none 
of  you  put  a  ball  through  him  ?  " 

"  The  Colonel  is  a  crafty  lad,  as  well  as  a  bould 
one,"  said  Sylvester,  "  and  it  is  none  so  easy  to  reach 
him.  He  had  a  dozen  men  with  him  up  to  last  \'ear 
from  a  man-o'-war  that  is  at  Kinsale.  They  have 
taken  half  of  them  away  now,  but  soon  he  will  be 
holding  his  own  and  want  the  help  of  none  of  them. 
He  is  at  the  ould  devilry  again,  bringing  in  Protestants 
to  live  among  us.  The  Parliament  changed  the  law,  and 
they  can  stay  now,  worse  luck  !  He  has  found  copper 
in  the  mountains  ;  mighty  fine  they  say  it  is  ;  and  he 
has  fetched  over  great  gangs  of  miners  from  Cornwall 
who  dig  the  copper  for  him,  and  are  settled  about  the 
place.  Psalm-singing  rogues  they  are  ;  but  they  work 
as  Sir  William's  people  did,  and  there  is  a  dale  of 
money  going  among  them.  And  just  in  the  same 
way  again  he  won't  leave  alone  the  poor  fish  in  the 
sea.  He  has  brought  some  more  of  them  Cornishmen 
with  boats  and  lines  and  long  nets.  They  are  making 
money,  too,  and  there  are  so  many  of  them  that  they 


48  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


are  not  safe  to  meddle  with  at  all.  The  country  is 
going  to  the  Divil  with  them  all.  The  gentry  about 
Bantry  are  just  mad,  for  they  have  lost  the  market 
for  their  fleeces,  and  they  have  no  claret  in  their  cellars. 
But  what  does  the  Colonel  care  for  that,  so  long  as  he 
is  doing  the  Lord's  work,  as  he  calls  it.  And  I  have 
not  told  ye  the  worst  yet." 

"  You    have   told    me   bad    enough,"     said    Morty 
sternly  ;  "  but  go  on  with  the  rest." 

"  Well,  you  will  mind  the  shape  of  the  long  strip  of 
land  that  runs  down   from  Kenmare  to  the   Durseys 
The  mountain  line  that  is  in  the  middle  of   it  paits 
the  counties  of  Cork  and  Kerry.    The  streams  on  one 
side   fall    into   Bantry   Bay  ;    on  the   other,  into   the 
Kenmare  River.     The  Colonel's   lands  and  the  Earl 
of  Shelbourne's  lands  meet  on  the  ridge  ;  but  because 
they  are  in  two  counties,  and  the  authority  is  different, 
the  boys  slip  across  the  borders  when  trouble  rises. 
The  Colonel  saw  that  he  could  never  stop  the  trade 
as  long  as  the  boys  had  Glanmore  and  Kilmakilloge 
free  for  them.     So  he  gets  the  ear  of   the  old  Earl 
that    is   in    London — kin    of    blood  they  are,   I    am 
informed.     He  has  tould  him  there  is  no  English  law 
in  Kerry.     He  has  minded  him  of   what  his  father 
did,  and  the  power  of  money  that  he  made,  and  the 
Protestants  that  he  put  in  up  and  down  the  river  for 
the  peace  of  the  country.     It  had  all  gone  to  waste, 
and  to  the  old  race,  for  want  of  care,  and  the   inter- 
ference of  thim  Bishops  ;  but  the  law  was  altered,  and 
now  there  was  no  fear  for  them.     He  tells  the  Earl 
how  he  has  found  the  copper  close  by  and  handy,  and 
if  the  furnaces  are  opened  in  Glanmore  again,  they 
can    smelt  it  on  the  spot  and   make  a  brave  trade. 
The   Government  had  been  complaining  about    the 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  49 


Wild-geese  and  the  Rapparees,  and  the  French  coming 
and  going.  So  the  Earl  has  come  into  it,  and  he  has 
sent  the  notice  I  told  ye  of,  that  when  Macfinnan  Dhu 
drops,  and  he  has  not  long  to  remain  with  us,  the 
lase  will  not  be  renewed,  and  the  agent  will  take 
possession  of  Derreen  ;  and  the  bad  work  we  thought 
we  had  done  with  will  begin  over  again.  So  now  you 
know  how  it  is,  Morty.  It  is  for  you  to  save  us  if 
you  can  ;  and  if  you  fail  us  now  and  ill  comes  of  it, 
you  have  had  your  warning.  If  you  let  the  Colonel 
have  his  way,  divil  a  drop  of  brandy  will  ye  ever  land 
again  in  Tuosist,  Mr.  Blake,  or  fetch  a  woolpack  from 
the  caves." 

Harder  and  sterner  Morty  Sullivan's  face  had 
grown  as  he  listened  to  his  kinsman's  story.  He 
had  lost  faith  in  Irish  insurrections.  His  long  and 
distinguished  service  in  foreign  armies,  his  intimacies 
with  Princes  and  Statesmen,  his  occupation  with  large 
interests  and  national  concerns,  had  given  him  a  disgust 
for  local  conspiracies  and  crimes,  and  for  the  cowardly 
patriotism  which  disguised  disaffection  behind  perjury, 
and  accomplished  nothing  save  an  increase  in  the 
general  misery.  Even  for  his  own  cousin  he  had  felt 
little,  except  contempt,  as  he  listened  to  his  candid 
confession.  But  after  all,  he  was  himself  the  chief  of 
a  race  whose  existence  was  now  in  peril.  He  was 
touched  in  his  pride,  for  the  English  Colonel  who  was 
doing  the  mischief  was  in  possession  of  the  Castle  of 
his  ancestors.  He  was  shocked  at  the  violence  which 
had  been  offered  to  his  nearest  and  dearest  relations. 
He  had  his  o\\\\  personal  grievances  in  connection 
with  the  flight  from  CuUoden,  and  Goring's  share  in 
the  pursuit.  Some  fate  seemed  to  force  him  into 
collision  with  a  man  who  knew  nothing  of  him,  save 

4 


50  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


as  an  outlawed  follower  of  Charles  Edward,  yet  at 
every  step  of  his  life  was  inflicting  upon  him  wound 
after  wound.  He  sprang  from  his  chair  and  strode 
up  and  down  the  room  while  Blake  watched  the 
working  upon  him  of  a  story  which  had  come  so 
opportunely  to  support  his  own  arguments  ;  he  had 
forgotten  his  impatience  at  the  length  to  which  the 
tale  had  been  drawn  out,  and  only  wished  that 
there  might  be  more  of  it  behind. 

"  You  say  this  business  is  coming  close  upon  us," 
he  observed.  "  What  ails  Macfinnan  Dhu  ?  He  is  no 
older  than  myself" 

"  We  age  quickly  in   Ireland,  your  honour,  with  the 
whiskey  and   the  broken  heads  ;  and  Macfinnan  had 
his  share  in  both,  honest  man.     But  indeed   it  is  the 
thought  of  all  this,  and   he  the  cause  of  it   by  his   own 
carelessness,  that  is  like  to   be  the  end  of  him.     The 
Earl's  notice  about  the  lase  came  down  the  week  before 
I  left.   A  mighty  pleasant  letter  came  along  with  it.  The 
Earl  wrote  to  him  with  his   own  hand.     No  complaint 
had   he   to   make    of    Macfinnan,     who    had    always 
paid  his  rent  like   a  gentleman.     The  family  should 
suffer  no  wrong.     They  should  have  the  best  of  his 
farms,  and  if  the  oath  Macfinnan  would  have  to  swear 
was  unpleasant  to  him,  he  would  hold  him  clear  of  the 
law  :  and  indeed  it  would  be  hard  for  Macfinnan  Dhu 
or  his  children  to  swear  they  were  of  the  Established 
Church,    and    never    a    church    service    within    reach 
of  them   for   these  forty  years.       But   the   Earl    said 
he  was  going  to  take  up  Sir  William's  colony  again, 
and  drain   the  bogs,   and  open   foundries  and  fisheries 
and  '  benefit  the    poor   people   on  the  property,'  as  he 
was   plased  to  call  it.     He  had  all    respect   for  Mac- 
finnan Dhu,  small   thanks  to  him  for  that  same.     No 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  51 

alterations  were  to  be  made  in  his  life-time,  and  as  a 
token  of  his  regard  and  esteem  for  his  old  friend,  as  he 
called  him,  he  begged  leave  to  send  Macfinnan  a  case 
of  wine,  the  best  he  had  in  his  cellar. 

"  Macfinnan  was  in  bed  with  the  faver  when  the 
letter  come.  Mighty  ill  he  was  at  that  time,  and  he 
calling  for  the  whiskey,  and  the  more  we  guv  him  the 
worse  it  was  with  him,  but  when  the  letter  was 
brought,  and  the  wine  case  along  with  it  the  Earl 
spoke  of,  he  up  with  himself  with  a  spring  as  if  he  was 
shot  out  of  a  gun.  He  flung  his  old  cloak  about 
him.  Down  the  stairs  he  went,  and  out  at  the  door, 
and  up  the  big  rock  that's  there  w^ith  the  sundial  on  it 
that  Morty  spoke  of  just  now. 

" '  Bring  up  the  basket,'  says  he.  Sure  if  it  had 
been  whiskey,  he  would  have  been  in  no  such  hurry, 
for  it  is  a  sin  to  throw  good  liquor  away.  But  for 
wine,  sure  it  is  no  drink  for  a  man  at  all  at  all.  '  Bring 
it  up,'  says  he  again.  '  Bad  cess  to  you,  what  are 
ye  delaying  for?'  There  were  six  dozen  bottles  in  the 
case.  He  out  with  the  first.  In  a  voice  which  ye 
might  have  heard  at  Colorus,  for  Macfinnan  had  ever 
a  wild  cry  in  the  throat  of  him,  he  called  the  curse  of 
St.  Finian  on  the  stranger  that  was  driving  the  Celt 
from  the  land  of  his  fathers.  Then  he  smashed  the 
bottle  on  the  stone,  and  the  red  stain  ran  down  the 
side  of  it.  Out  with  another,  and  then  with  another, 
till  he  had  finished  the  whole  of  them.  Every  curse 
that  ever  fell  from  a  saint's  lips  in  Ireland,  and  the 
holy  men,  as  ye  know,  had  a  fine  gift  that  way,  he 
poured  out  on  the  Earl's  head.  In  his  sickness  he 
had  been  reading  Father  Colgan's  lives  of  them,  and 
he  had  it  all  ready  on  his  tongue.  For  all  the  world 
he   was    like   an     Archbishop    ringing    his   bell    and 

4* 


52  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

putting  the  candles  out,  and  for  every  candle  that 
he  quenches  sending  a  soul  to  hell.  Hathen  or 
Christian,  prose  or  verse,  'twas  all  one  to  Macfinnan, 
and  at  each  curse  down  went  a  bottle,  till  the  rock 
was  all  in  a  stream,  and  never  a  creature  touched 
a  drop  of  it,  not  even  the  poor  dogs  that  came  run- 
ning at  the  noise  to  keep  the  master  company  with 
their  howling.  We  helped  him  down  when  he  had 
done,  and  if  he  had  relieved  his  sowl,  it  seemed  as  if 
he  had  relieved  his  sickness  along  with  it,  for  he 
called  for  his  horse  and  his  pistols,  and  he  swore 
he  would  ride  to  Kenmare  and  make  onasyness  for 
the  agent.  But  we  held  him  quiet  that  time,  and 
by-and-bye  he  grew  faint-like,  and  the  faver  came 
back  upon  him,  and  we  got  him  to  bed,  and  I  tould 
him  I  would  take  a  cast  over  in  Mr.  Blake's  brigan- 
tine  that  had  looked  in  from  the  sea,  and  I'd  talk  to 
yourself  about  it,  Mr.  Morty,  for  they  said  you  were  in 
Paris  ;  but  by  good  luck  I  have  found  ye  here,  and 
now  you  know  the  whole,  and  you  and  Mr.  Blake 
can  see  between  ye  which  ye  will  be  best  able  to  do." 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  reader  has  been  Introduced  to  the  mansion  of  an 
Irish  exile  on  the  Continent.  He  must  imagine  him- 
self now  at  the  modest  home  of  an  Irish  landlord  resid- 
ing on  his  own  domains.  At  the  western  entrance  of 
Dunboy  harbour,  a  mile  from  the  village  of  Castle- 
ton,  and  at  a  little  distance  from  the  shore,  there 
stood,  at  the  date  of  our  story,  a  manor  house,  or 
something  between  a  manor  house  and  a  cottage, 
which  formed  an    agreeable  contrast    with  the  usual 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  53 

forbidding  aspect  of  Irish  dwelling-houses.  It  was 
low,  on  account  of  the  storms  which  in  winter  sweep 
round  Bantry  Bay  with  peculiar  violence.  The  roof 
was  of  purple  Valencia  slate  ;  the  body  of  the  build- 
ing was  constructed  of  the  grey  stone  of  the  district, 
but  was  almost  concealed  by  ivy  and  flowering  creepers 
which  covered  the  walls  and  clustered  about  the  win- 
dows. A  verandah  stretched  the  entire  length  of  the 
front,  supported  on  wooden  pillars,  over  and  round 
which  twined  China  roses,  with-  occasional  fuchsias, 
then  newly  introduced  into  Ireland,  The  back  of  the 
house  was  sheltered  by  a  grove  of  large  trees.  Right 
and  left,  and  scattered  about  the  grounds,  were  young 
plantations  of  pine  and  oak,  and  lime  and  larch, 
which,  if  they  had  the  luck  to  grow,  would  be  protec- 
tion from  every  gale  that  could  blow.  The  lawn  was 
brilliant  with  the  rich  green  of  the  after-grass  :  a  light 
fence,  through  which  there  was  a  gate,  divided  it  from 
the  beach ;  and  beyond  was  a  landlocked  cove  where 
a  dozen  stout  fishing  boats  were  riding  at  their 
anchors.  On  one  side,  on  a  rising  ground,  were  the 
whitewashed  barracks  of  the  Coast  Guard,  with  a 
mast  on  which  flew  the  white  English  ensign.  On 
the  other,  were  a  row  of  stone  cottages  of  late  erection 
occupied  by  a  few  West  of  England  families,  who  had 
been  tempted  over  by  reports  of  the  extraordinary 
wealth  of  Bantry  Bay  in  every  kind  of  fish.  The 
long  brown  nets  spread  to  dry  upon  the  shingle,  were 
sparkling  with  silver  scales,  for  the  herring  had  come 
in,  and  the  pickling  tubs  were  running  over  from  the 
heavy  catch  of  the  previous  night.  A  large,  high 
island  shut  off  the  view  of  the  open  water.  To  the 
left,  was  the  dark  mass  of  Hungry  Hill.  To  the  right 
a   range    of    heather-clad    mountains,   which   fell    in 


54  THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

precipices  to  the  sea,  with  creeks  and  hollows  running 
up  among  them,  fringed,  when  the  tide  was  cmt,  with 
banks  of  yellow  seaweed.  Almost  within  gun-shot  was 
a  grassy  promontory  on  which  the  ruins  stood  of 
the  old  Dunboy  Castle,  the  confiscated  home  of  the 
O'Sullivans,  which  was  famous  in  Irish  history  for 
the  splendid  defence  made  there  against  Sir  George 
Carew  and  an  English  army.  The  castle  was  then 
taken  and  destroyed,  and  had  never  been  rebuilt. 
The  lines  of  the  fortifications  were  marked  by  grassy 
mounds,  interspersed  with  bushes,  and  a  flock  of  sheep 
were  lazily  feeding  where  the  bones  of  the  garrison 
lay  a  few  feet  below  them. 

Here  lived  and  here  reigned,  in  the  Irish  phrase. 
Colonel  John  Goring,  whose  presence  and  whose 
actions  had  drawn  so  much  comment,  favourable  and 
unfavourable,  in  the  two  counties  of  Cork  and  Kerry. 
The  house  and  the  settlement  had  been  erected  and 
created  by  himself  For  the  first  three  years  after  his 
arrival,  he  had  received  some  assistance  from  the 
Government.  The  French  scare  was  then  fresh,  and 
he  had  been  allowed  a  small  sloop  and  a  dozen  men. 
When  peace  was  signed,  the  sloop  was  withdrawn, 
and  as  the  smuggling  had  been  diminished  by  the 
Colonel's  energy,  the  establishment  had  been  reduced 
till  he  had  barely  hands  enough  remaining  to  man  a 
long  boat.  On  the  other  hand  the  fishing  station 
throve  admirably  ;  the  mines  in  the  mountains  were 
of  high  promise  ;  and  thus,  independent  of  the  Coast 
Guard,  the  Colonel  had  men  enough  of  his  own  who 
were  ready  always  for  any  useful  sei-vice  when  he 
found  it  necessary  to  call  upon  them. 

It  was  a  mild  morning  early  in  September  in  the 
same  year,  175 — ,  in  which  we  have  seen  Morty   Sul- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  55 

livan  and  Sylvester  at  Patrick  Blake's  chateau  at 
Nantes.  The  windows  leading  into  the  verandah 
were  open,  and  in  the  dark  dining-room  behind  could 
be  seen  a  second  breakfast  table,  at  which  were  seated 
the  Colonel  himself,  with  his  lady  and  another  person, 
a  gentleman,  either  a  visitor  or  an  inmate  of  the 
family.  Mrs.  Goring  may  have  been  eight-and- 
twenty,  wnth  dark  blue  eyes,  and  regular  feature.^, 
just  mellowed  into  mature  w^omanhood.  She  was  tall, 
slightly  but  strongly  shaped,  figure  and  expression 
bright,  lively,  and  energetic,  and  a  complexion  which 
had  rather  gained  than  suffered  from  Irish  weather. 
She  was  dressed  in  the  plain  serge  of  the  country, 
home  made  for  home  consumption,  which  English 
law  could  not  interfere  with. 

The  Colonel  was  three  or  four  years  older.  He, 
too,  was  tall  and  slender.  His  face,  once  strikingly 
handsome,  had  been  disfigured  by  a  sabre  cut,  which, 
however,  if  it  spoilt  the  symmetry  of  his  features,  had 
added  to  the  manliness  of  his  expression.  His  eyes 
were  dark  grey,  like  a  falcon's,  with  fire  flashing  in  the 
bottom  of  them.  His  mouth  was  firm  and  well 
closed,  with  a  quick  play  in  the  lips,  which  indicated 
a  temperament  where  emotions  might  give  the  law  to 
the  mind.  Though  he  was  not  much  past  thirty,  his 
chestnut  hair  was  already  touched  with  streaks  of 
silver,  as  if  life  had  brought  anxieties  already,  which 
were  leaving  their  marks  upon  him. 

The  third  member  of  the  party  was  less  noticeable. 
He  was  a  quiet,  middle-aged  man,  dressed  in  plain 
black,  perhaps  a  scholar,  perhaps  a  minister,  gentle 
mannered  and  low  voiced,  and  answering  when  spoken 
to  with  a  deference  which  indicated  some  kind  of 
dependence.     His  name  was  Fox.      That  he   was  a 


56  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

clergyman  of  some  kind,  appeared  from  the  address  of 
a  letter  which  the  Colonel  had  just  thrown  across  the 
table  to  him,  with  another  to  his  wife.  Before  the 
Colonel  himself  lay  a  large  heap,  which  had  just  been 
emptied  out  of  the  post-bag,  a  weekly  luxury  which 
his  various  duties  compelled  him  to  allow  himself. 
The  nearest  post-office  was  at  Bantry,  and  until  the 
Colonel's  arrival,  the  letters  for  Dunboy  had  lain 
there  in  the  window  till  they  were  called  for. 

On  this  particular  morning  his  correspondence 
seemed  of  exceptional  importance ;  more  than  one 
letter  requiring  to  be  read  a  second  time.  While  he 
examines  them  one  after  another,  the  opportunity 
may  be  taken  to  fill  in  and  correct  the  account  of 
him  given  by  Sylvester  O'Sullivan  at  Nantes.  The 
forms  of  objects,  whether  persons  or  things,  depend 
on  light  and  shade.  What  in  one  aspect  is  dark  and 
forbidding,  in  another  is  engaging  and  attractive. 

John  Goring  had  been  a  boy  of  fourteen  when  his 
brother  succeeded  to  the  Dunboy  estate.  Inheriting 
from  an  aunt  an  independent  property  of  his  own, 
he  himself  had  joined  the  army  on  leaving  Eton. 
He  had  been  distinguished  on  every  occasion  when 
the  chance  had  been  offered  him.  He  had  served  in 
the  Low  Countries.  He  had  been  on  the  staff  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  in  the  Scotch  Campaign.  He 
had  been  named  in  the  Gazette  again  and  again  ;  and 
while  making  a  name  for  himself  in  his  profession,  he 
had  been  equally  popular  in  private,  and  had  been 
respected  and  admJred  by  his  brother  officers.  His 
especial  friend  and  intimate  had  been  Stratford  Eyre, 
with  whom  he  had  been  sent  in  pursuit  of  the  insur- 
gent Highland  chiefs  after  Culloden.  When  Eyre 
was  sent  as   Governor  to  Galway,  Goring  went  with 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  57 


him  thither,  and  it  was  while  he  was  thus  engaged 
that  the  news  reached  him  of  his  brother's  death,  and 
of  his  own  succession  to  the  property.  He  was 
attached  to  the  service,  and  was  unwilHng  to  leave  it. 
He  was  well  off,  and  a  neglected  estate  on  the  borders 
of  Cork  and  Kerry  was  more  likely  to  be  an  expense 
to  him  than  an  advantage.  His  first  impulse  was  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  to  pass  on  the  un- 
inviting inheritance  to  the  next  heir.  But  it  was  one 
of  the  occasions  when  English  statesmen  had  awakened 
for  a  brief  interval  to  the  disorders  of  Ireland,  and 
thought  it  necessary  that  something  should  be  done. 
It  was  represented  to  Goring  that  if  he  wished  to 
serve  his  country,  here  was  an  opportunity  thrown 
especially  in  his  way.  The  Government  offered  him 
the  brevet  rank  of  Colonel,  with  the  command  of  the 
Coast  Guard  from  Cape  Clear  to  Dingle.  Colonel 
Eyre  strongly  urged  him  not  to  refuse  a  position  so 
exceptionally  honourable  and  useful. 

They  were  both  convinced,  from  their  experiences 
in  Galway,  that  the  contraband  trade  was  intimately 
connected  with  the  revolutionary  disorder  of  the 
country,  and  that  until  it  was  checked  in  some  way, 
no  permanent  improvement  was  possible.  His  own 
work,  Eyre  said,  could  be  carried  out  far  more  easily 
and  effectively  if  a  brother  officer  on  whom  he  could 
rely  was  co-operating  with  him  in  the  creeks  and  bays 
of  the  South. 

The  revenue  service  had  a  bad  name  in  Ireland.  It 
was  odious  in  itself,  because  it  was  an  interference 
with  an  occupation  which  nine-tenths  of  the  people 
regarded  as  innocent  and  praiseworthy.  A  revenu3 
officer  who  did  his  duty  generally  came  to  a  rough 
end.     If  he  escaped,  it  was  by  dishonest  connivance 


58  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV. 

with  operations  which  it  was  his  business  to  prevent. 
Even  Eyre's  representations  would  not  have  overcome 
Colonel  Goring's  reluctance  to  meddle  with  so  un- 
popular a  calling.  In  vain  his  friend  laid  before  him 
that  the  service  was  discredited  by  the  character  of 
the  persons  engaged  in  it,  that  because  gentlemen  had 
declined  to  exert  themselves,  the  demoralisation  had 
spread  till  it  had  becom^e  a  political  danger.  Colonel 
Goring  was  aware  of  this,  and  fully  admitted  that  the 
business  of  maintaining  order  attached  to  the  owners 
of  the  land.  But  he  hesitated  to  admit  that  he  was 
himself  bound  to  become  one  of  them  if  he  liked  to 
decline,  and  his  reluctance  would  probably  have 
carried  the  day  if  Eyre's  entreaties  had  not  been 
reinforced  by  arguments  of  another  kind. 

It  has  often  been  observed  that  if  a  soldier  falls  at  all 
under  spiritual  influences,  the  effect  upon  him  is  pecu- 
liarly strong.  At  that  moment  a  religious  revival  was 
spreading  over  England  and  Wales.  Whitfield  and 
the  two  Wesleys  were  the  leaders  whose  names  were 
brought  specially  before  the  world.  But  these  dis- 
tinguished men  appealed  to  feelings  which  were 
already  alive  and  awake.  A  wave  of  belief  was 
passing  through  the  minds  of  men  like  the  sap  in 
trees  which  lies  dormant  as  if  it  was  dead,  and  rises  up 
again  and  clothes  the  branches  with  leaves  and  flowers. 
The  Protestant  spirit  of  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
which  had  shaken  the  British  Constitution,  overthrown 
the  Church,  and  for  a  king  had  given  us  a  Protector, 
was  come  back  to  life  ;  come  back  in  a  milder  form, 
no  longer  threatening  wars  and  revolution,  but  with 
power  to  seize  hold  on  the  consciences  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  human  beings,  and  to  make  out  of 
evangelical  Christianity  a  practical  rule  of  life.  Colonel 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  59 

Goring  was  one  of  those  who  became  sensible  of  the 
new  impulse,  and  becam_e  sensible  of  it  as  a  call  to 
devote  himself  to  anything  which  presented  itself  as  a 
duty.  He  had  always  been  what  is  called  a  religious 
man,  in  the  sense  that  he  believed  that  he  would  be 
called  to  account  hereafter  for  his  conduct.  But  his  con- 
victions had  ripened  from  a  consciousness  of  respon- 
sibility to  an  im  mediate  and  active  sense  that  he  was  a 
servant  of  God,  with  definite  work  laid  upon  him  to  do. 
He  carried  his  habits  as  a  soldier  into  his  relations  with 
his  Commander  above.  Under  Cromwell  he  would 
have  been  the  most  devoted  of  the  Ironsides.  In 
default  of  an  appointed  leader  to  give  him  orders,  he 
looked  out  for  direct  instructions  to  himself  in  Provi- 
dential circumstances,  and  in  any  accident  which 
might  befall  him,  he  looked  habitually  to  see  whether 
perhaps,  there  might  be  a  guiding  hand  in  it. 

By  this  test  he  had  to  try  finally,  when  other  con- 
siderations were  exhausted,  the  question  whether 
he  was  or  was  not  bound  to  accept  the  Dunboy 
property.  He  had  studied  Ireland  anxiously.  He  had 
observed  with  disgust  the  growing  weakness  of  the  Pro- 
testant settlement  and  the  reviving  energy  of  the  Catho- 
lics. To  him,  an  Englishman  of  the  old  Puritan  school, 
the  Pope  was  anti-Christ.  He  absolutely  disbelieved 
that  Irish  Popery  could  be  brought  either  by  conni- 
vance or  toleration  into  loyal  relations  with  the  English 
Crown.  He  did  not  like  Penal  laws.  He  knew  that 
the  relations  of  his  own  country  with  the  Catholic 
Powers  of  Europe  made  the  enforcement  of  such 
laws  impossible,  except  spasmodically  and  uncertainly, 
and  he  thought  that  laws  which  were  not  rr  eant  to  be 
obeyed  were  better  off  the  Statute  Book.  But  he  was 
convinced  also  that  Ireland  could  only  be  permanently 


6o  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


attached  to  the  British  Crown  if  the  Protestants  were 
there  in  strength  enough  to  hold  their  own  ground. 
Cromwell's  policy  of  establishing  Protestant  settle- 
ments South  as  well  as  North  was  the  only  rational 
one. 

It  had  been  too  long  forgotten.  Gal  way  had,  for  a 
few  years,  been  more  than  half  Protestant.  Now 
scarce  a  Protestant  was  left  within  the  limits,  and  as 
Galway  was  so  were  most  of  the  principal  towns  in 
Munster.  This  inheritance,  as  he  thought  of  it,  might 
possibly  be  a  direction  of  Providence  to  him  to  stem 
the  stream.  The  longer  he  reflected  the  more  the 
conclusion  was  borne  in  upon  him.  The  estate  had 
fallen  to  him  as  a  Divine  call,  which  he  was  not  at 
liberty  to  disobey.  The  revenue  office  he  would 
accept  for  the  time,  and  either  keep  or  relinquish 
it  as  might  seem  expedient.  As  a  landowner  he 
would  try  whether  it  was  possible  to  do  what  Crom- 
well designed,  and  to  make  the  small  section  of  the 
country  which  had  fallen  to  himself  cosmic  and 
orderly.  He  did  not  deceive  himself  into  expecting 
help  from  his  neighbours.  The  gentry  of  the  South 
were  either  absentees,  living  on  their  rents  in  London 
or  Bath,  or,  if  residents,  adopting  the  ways  of  the 
"  Canaanites  "  for  the  sake  of  peace.  He  was  perfectly 
aware  that  if  he  acted  differently  from  those  by  whom 
he  was  surrounded,  he  would  be  regarded,  if  not  as 
a  hypocrite,  yet  as  a  disturbing  and  inconvenient 
clement.  But  he  was  willing  to  run  the  risk,  and  he 
trusted  to  time  to  bear  him  through. 

With  these  motives  and  with  these  purposes  Colonel 
Goring  left  the  army  and  settled  upon  his  estate  at 
Dunboy  two  years  after  the  battle  of  Culloden. 
He  had  thus  been  established  there  for  several  years 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  6i 

at  the  time  when  our  story  opens.  Fortunately  for 
himself,  he  was  wealthy.  He  had  property  in  England 
and  property  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  which  made 
him  independent  of  his  Irish  domain.  He  could  carry 
out  any  rational  plans  which  he  might  form  without 
fear  of  expense.  He  was  respected  if  he  was  not 
popular,  for  the  gentry  of  the  county  were  out  at 
elbows  and  admired,  in  spite  of  themselves,  a  man 
who  possessed  what  they  suffered  from  the  absence 
of  In  all  ranks  in  Ireland,  from  highest  to  lowest, 
everybody  was  hungry  for  something.  Mendicancy 
was  the  universal  rule.  Goring  wanted  nothing,  and 
such  spoils  as  might  be  going  he  left  to  his  neigh- 
bours to  divide  among  themselves.  He  was  super- 
stitious. He  believed  himself  to  be  living  under  God's 
orders,  as  a  subaltern  lives  under  the  orders  of  his 
general.  But  to  be  superstitious  in  this  sense  was 
only  to  accept  what  the  Bible  told  him,  and  implied 
nothing  dreamy  or  unreal.  Such  a  Providence  be- 
friended him  signally  soon  after  his  arrival.  He  dis- 
covered copper  ore  in  the  mountains  in  considerable 
abundance,  and  it  seemed  as  if  intended  specially  to 
encourage  him  in  the  purpose  which  he  had  in  view. 
An  experienced  engineer  from  Cornwall  having  re- 
ported favourably  on  the  surface  indications,  he 
brought  over  a  company  of  miners — able,  energetic 
workmen,  who  had  been  hearers  of  Whitfield,  and 
shared  in  his  own  convictions.  A  large  part  of  his 
land  was  unoccupied,  but  only  required  capital  and 
industry  to  carry  crops  and  cattle.  To  make  his 
settlement  self-supporting  and  independent  of  the 
Catholic  farmers  and  peasantry,  he  invited  Presby- 
terian labourers  and  artizans  out  of  Ulster.  He  was 
confident  that  the  coast  fisheries  could  be  worked  to 


62  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

profit.  Cornwall  again  supplied  him  with  a  dozen 
boatmen  and  their  families.  He  had  built  cottages  for 
them  and  provided  nets  and  lines  and  all  necessary 
tackle  ;  and  the  common  bond  among  them  all  was 
their  religious  earnestness,  which  not  only  made  them 
a  single  congregation,  but  united  them  in  a  virtual 
brotherhood. 

Among  his  tenantry  Colonel  Goring  made  no 
distinction  between  Catholic  and  Protestant.  No 
well-behaved  occupant  was  disturbed  from  his  hold- 
ing. Such  as  he  found  connected  with  the  smugglers 
he  resolutely  expelled  ;  the  rest  he  protected  to  the 
best  of  his  ability  from  the  effects  of  their  own  habits 
and  the  pernicious  customs  of  the  country.  The 
Established  Church  had  made  no  converts  among 
them.  It  was  heard  of  only  in  the  periodic  exactions 
of  tithe  for  the  support  of  a  rector  whom  they  had 
never  seen.  But  convinced  as  Goring  was  of  the 
truth  of  what  he  himself  believed,  he  could  not  despair 
of  the  effect  upon  them  of  a  genuine  presentation  of 
the  Evangelical  creed.  The  Celts  of  Cornwall  and 
Wales  and  the  Isle  of  Man  had  been  converted  ;  why 
not  the  Celts  of  Ireland  ?  He  was  wise  enough  however 
to  trust  to  time  and  natural  influences.  He  was  indiffer- 
ently just  and  indifferently  generous.  If  he  could  win 
the  Catholics  at  all,  he  could  win  them  only  by  acting 
consistently  on  the  principles  of  his  own  creed.  He 
knew  every  family  on  his  estate.  He  was  landlord, 
magistrate,  doctor,  adviser ;  and,  aided  by  the  natural 
instinct  of  the  Irish  to  look  up  to  their  superiors,  he 
gained,  first,  the  confidence,  and,  more  slowly,  the 
actual  regard  of  his  own  native-born  dependents. 

The  colonists  whom   he  had  introduced,  however, 
were  his  chief  interest,  for  it  was  on  them  and  on  their 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  63 

well-being  that  he  depended.  They  had  joined  him, 
not  merely  or  principally  for  the  worldly  advantages 
which  they  might  expect,  but  having  been  recently 
converted  (as  the  phrase  was)  into  a  certain  missionary 
enthusiasm,  they  were  Protestants  of  an  advanced 
type,  inclining,  as  was  generally  found  among 
the  most  impassioned  and  most  earnest  believers, 
into  Calvinism  and  Independence.  Colonel  Gor- 
ing personally  had  strong  sympathy  with  these 
forms  of  thought.  He  had  been  born  in  the  Church 
of  England,  and  as  a  commissioned  officer  he  had 
necessarily  remained  within  its  pale.  But  the  Church 
of  England  with  a  Catholic  Liturgy  had  Calvinistic 
Articles  ;  Whitfield  had  left  it  with  reluctance,  and 
rather  because  he  was  driven  out  than  because  he 
conceived  that  he  was  under  an  obligation  to  break 
away.  Colonel  Goring,  being  a  layman,  saw  the  less 
reason  for  withdrawing  from  the  communion  to  which 
he  naturally  belonged,  and  had  there  been  any  parish 
church  with  a  service  in  it  within  riding  distance 
of  Dunboy  he  would  have  continued  to  attend. 
But  his  sympathies  were  with  his  Presbyterian  and 
Independent  comrades.  In  essentials,  he  thought  as 
they  did,  and  being  a  man  much  in  earnest,  he  thought 
little  of  things  which  were  not  essential.  The  laws 
which  had  ruined  so  many  of  the  other  Protestant 
settlements  had  been  modified.  Nonconformists, 
whose  opinions  were  not  deemed  inconsistent  with 
the  safety  of  the  State,  were  now  allowed  their  own 
chapels,  under  certain  conditions  of  registration.  The 
Established  Church  having  no  existence  in  those 
parts,  save  where  it  showed  its  vitality  by  the  demand 
for  tithes.  Colonel  Goring  built  a  meeting  room, 
attached  to  his   house,  where  his   people  could  have 


64  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

such  a  service  as  suited  their  own  convictions.  He 
had  invited  over  a  mildly  eloquent  Falmouth  minister, 
the  Mr.  Fox  who  has  been  already  mentioned,  to  help 
him.  In  this  extemporized  chapel  the  congregation 
collected  on  Sunday  mornings  and  evenings,  said 
their  prayers  without  the  help  of  a  liturgy,  sang  their 
hymns  together,  and  listened  to  Mr.  Fox's  exhorta- 
tions. They  were  best  pleased,  however,  when  the 
Colonel  himself  would  take  the  minister's  place,  and 
say  a  few  plain  words  to  them  in  a  soldier's  dialect — 
words  which,  if  without  ornament  were  absolutely 
sincere,  and  therefore  going  straight  to  hearts  as 
sincere  as  his  own. 

Some  difficulties  remained  with  marriages  and 
baptisms  and  burials,  but  as  the  settlement  was  young 
these  had  been  so  far  inconsiderable.  A  school  was 
a  more  intricate  problem.  The  serious  Protestant 
communities  insisted  always  on  a  careful  education  of 
their  children,  and  the  Act  of  Uniformity  still  forbade 
instruction  of  any  kind  in  Ireland,  except  by  the 
clergy  of  the  Establishment.  But  in  this  respect  the 
Colonel  had  borrowed  a  leaf  from  the  book  of  Irish 
anarchy.  He  had  established  a  school  of  his  own,  in 
the  confidence  that  no  one  would  interfere  with  him. 

Both  school  and  chapel  had  their  attractions  for 
the  Catholics  in  the  neighbourhood.  One  and 
another  would  drop  in  and  listen  to  the  Colonel's 
preaching.  The  peasantry  till  they  were  taught 
better  saw  no  reason  why  their  boys  and  girls  might 
not  learn  to  read  and  write  from  the  Protestant 
master,  and  the  Priest  of  Castleton  might  have  seen 
his  sheep  stray  away  from  him,  had  not  circum- 
stances come  to  his  help.  He  was  interested  himself, 
in  being  on  good  terms  with  Goring,  for  he  had  been 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  65 


introduced  from  abroad,  and  might  have  been  sent  to 
prison,  if  Goring  had  pleased.  The  Colonel  instead 
of  molesting  him  invited  him  to  dinner  on  holydays, 
and  the  Priest  was  willing  enough  to  go.  For  a  year 
or  two  all  friction  had  been  avoided  ;  Catholics  and 
Protestants  worked  together  in  the  mines  and  in  the 
fishing,  and  in  spite  of  theories  of  Anti-Christ  were 
very  tolerable  friends.  So  perhaps  they  might  have 
continued,  had  the  Colonel  been  no  more  than  an 
improving  landlord  of  Evangelical  persuasion.  Un- 
fortunately he  had  other  duties,  which  brought  him 
into  collision  with  the  usages  of  the  neighbourhood. 

On  his  first  arrival,  when  the  war  alarm  was  at  its 
height,  his  activity  in  suppressing  the  smugglers  was 
understood  and  allowed  for.  He  was  strongly  sup- 
ported by  the  Government,  and  his  official  position 
increased  the  respect  that  was  paid  to  him.  After 
the  peace  things  relapsed  into  their  natural  condition. 
The  anxiety  in  high  quarters  passed  off,  and  local 
officials,  like  Colonel  Eyre,  in  Galway,  were  given  to 
understand  that  measures  which  irritated  the  people 
were  no  longer  desirable.  So  long  as  the  contraband 
trade  was  not  connected  with  plots  for  invasion  and 
insurrection,  the  Irish  gentry  in  Parliament  and  out  of 
it  preferred  for  reasons  of  their  own  that  it  should  not 
be  officially  interfered  with.  The  larger  smuggling 
craft,  which  in  war  time  had  cruised  as  privateers 
with  letters  of  marque,  returned  to  their  old  occu- 
pation as  cargo  runners.  The  revenue  cutter  was 
simultaneously  recalled  from  Dunboy,  the  coastguard 
was  reduced  in  number,  and  if  the  Colonel  had  been 
contented  to  look  through  his  fingers  while  things 
reverted  into  their  natural  channels,  he  would  have 
only  done  what  was  desired  and  expected   from   him. 

5 


66  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

by  the  general  inhabitants  of  the  country  and   by  the 
chief  authorities  in  Dublin. 

His  conceptions  of  his  duty  made  such  a  course 
impossible  to  him.  He  thought  that  he  had  effectively 
put  the  smuggling  down.  He  saw  it  suddenly  revive 
while  his  means  of  contending  with  it  were  reduced. 
His  letters  to  the  Castle  were  at  first  coldly  replied  to, 
and  were  then  left  unanswered  altogether.  The  gen- 
tlemen in  the  neighbourhood  held  aloof  in  mild 
surprise  that  he  was  unable  to  do  like  the  rest  of  them. 
The  terms  of  his  commission  were  extensive.  It 
was  the  peculiarity  of  Irish  administration  that  in 
theory  Protestant  officials  possessed  extravagant 
powers.  Protestant  inhabitants  had  not  only  the  right 
to  possess  arms  while  Catholics  had  none,  but  were 
bound  to  possess  them  and  to  support  the  magistrates 
when  called  on. 

Colonel  Goring  being  an  Englishman  failed  to  draw 
the  distinction  which  he  ought  to  have  drawn  between 
theory  and  practice.  Finding  the  smugglers  returning 
upon  him,  increased  in  numbers  and  audacity,  and  his 
own  coastguard  entirely  unequal  to  encountering 
them,  he  drilled  and  armed  his  own  boatmen,  and  as 
many  of  his  other  hands  as  cared  to  volunteer.  With 
their  assistance  he  again  swept  the  bay,  seized  half  a 
dozen  cargoes,  boarded  and  sank  a  large  French 
lugger  which  had  been  deserted  b)'  her  crew,  and 
made  himself  more  feared  than  ever.  But  his  success 
was  fatal  to  the  popularity  both  of  himself  and  his 
settlement,  which  came  to  be  looked  on  as  a  Saxon 
garrison.  Anger  and  ill-will  took  the  place  of  the  old 
friendliness.  The  priest  came  no  more  to  dinner. 
Peasants  from  the  village  or  the  mountains  were  no 
longer  seen  at  the  chapel,  nor   Catholic  child  at  the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  67 


school.  A  few  of  the  Colonel's  smaller  tenants  re- 
mained grateful  to  him  for  former  acts  of  kindness. 
Every  one  of  them  who  wanted  anything  came 
clamouring  for  it,  and  was  profuse  in  protestations 
of  affection.  But  the  Colonel  had  sorrowfully  to  feel 
that  among  his  Catholic  subjects  he  was  rather  losing 
ground  than  gaining  it.  Their  master  he  might  be  as 
long  as  he  was  strong  enough  to  hold  his  ground  ; 
they  would  fear  and  in  a  sense  they  would  respect 
him.  But  they  would  not  accept  him  as  the  friend 
which  he  had  wished  and  hoped  to  be. 

Colonel  Goring,  however,  had  seen  too  much  of 
hfe  to  give  way  after  a  first  disappointment.  He  was 
sure  that  he  was  doing  right.  He  was  con- 
stitutionally of  a  buoyant  nature,  absolutely  fearless, 
well  aware  that  no  good  thing  was  ever  achieved 
in  this  world  without  a  struggle,  and  determined  that 
as  far  as  lay  in  himself  he  would  do  his  own  duty  in 
the  department  which  had  been  assigned  to  him.  The 
gentry  might  be  cold  to  him  at  first,  but  they  would 
come  round  to  him  by  degrees,  for  self-preservation 
would  drive  them  to  it.  Thus  he  went  steadily 
on,  careless  what  the  world  might  say  or  do.  He 
never  quarrelled  with  his  people  about  their  rents. 
In  such  matters  he  was  as  indulgent  as  they  had 
the  conscience  to  ask  him  to  be,  and  Irish  con- 
sciences will  ask  a  good  deal.  But  any  of  them 
whom  he  detected  in  correspondence  with  the 
smugglers  he  persevered  in  sending  inexorably  about 
their  business  —  among  them  the  two  ladies  at 
Dursey  Island,  about  whom  Sylvester  O'SuUivan 
had  been  so  eloquent.  He  knew  nothing  of  them. 
He  knew  only  that  their  "  Castle "  was  the  ren- 
dezvous   of  dangerous    and  desperate   men,   that  the 

5* 


68  THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 


caves  in    Dursey    Island    were    magazines    of    arms 
and  stores. 

Letters  enough  reached  him  after  this,  with  a 
sentence  of  death  in  them.  The  officer  who  had 
preceded  him  at  Castleton  had  been  shot,  and  he 
was  to  be  sent  the  same  road.  But  the  chance  of  a 
bullet  does  not  stop  a  soldier  from  obeying  his 
orders,  and  Colonel  Goring  had  received  his,  as  he 
understood  it,  direct  from  his  commander-in-chief 
For  the  present  he  was  fighting  his  battle  single- 
handed,  but  he  had  been  in  correspondence  with 
Lord  Shelbourne.  He  had  gone  to  London  to  see 
him  in  person,  and  explain  his  situation  to  him,  and 
the  Earl  had  been  so  impressed  with  what  he  heard 
that  he  had  taken  the  steps  of  which  the  reader  has 
been  already  informed,  to  revive  his  father's  operations. 
Colonel  Goring  could  look  forward  confidently  and 
hopefully  to  the  time  when  these  engagements  would 
be  carried  out.  When  a  second  Colony  like  his  own 
was  established  a  few  miles  from  him  across  the 
mountains,  the  mines  could  be  brought  into  fresh 
activity.  A  large  trade  would  follow,  and  the  wild 
spirits  of  Bantr}^  and  Kenmare  could  then  be  bridled 
effectivelv  and  for  ever. 


CHAPTER   VL 

But  we  keep  waiting  the  post  bag  and  its  contents. 
Throwing  his  wife  the  single  letter  which  he  found  in 
it  addressed  to  herself,  and  another  to  the  minister. 
Colonel  Goring  had  proceeded  to  attack  the  con- 
sideiable  heap  which  fell  to  his  own  share.  The 
first  which  he  took  up  was  from  his  agent  in  London. 
He  opened  it  with  the  nervousness  that  men  often 


THE  TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUNBOY.  69 


feel  on  receiving  letters  from  their  agents.  The  news 
they  contain  is  generally  important,  and  not  always 
agreeable.  His  face,  however,  lighted  up  as  he  read. 
He  looked  across  at  his  wife.  "  Elizabeth,"  he  said,  "  if 
you  are  not  too  much  occupied  with  your  own 
correspondent,  I  have  good  news  for  you  about  our 
estate  in  Jamaica." 

"  What  a  strange  coincidence,"  she  said.  "  My 
correspondent  writes  to  me  on  the  same  subject. 
She  is  a  good,  excellent  woman,  and  she  says 
that  being  '  professing  Christians,'  as  she  calls  us, 
we  have  no  business  to  own  slaves,  and  that  we 
ought  to  set  them  free.  I  think  as  she  does,  John. 
If  any  fresh  profits  have  come  from  that  quarter, 
I  don't  want  to  hear  of  them." 

''  All  good  people  are  not  of  the  same  opinion  on 
that  subject,"  answered  the  Colonel  quietly.  "  I  have 
heard  it  maintained  that  the  slaves  on  an  English 
West  Indian  plantation  are  better  off  than  the  poor 
labourers  of  Cork  or  Kerry.  God  help  them  if 
they  are  not  !  But  we  need  not  argue  about  it.  The 
estate  is  sold." 

"  Sold  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sold.  I  told  my  agent  that  I  wanted  to  get 
rid  of  it.  He  has  found  a  purchaser,  who  gives  me 
double  what  I  expected.  We  can  use  the  money  in 
making  our  poor  people  here  a  little  less  miserable, 
and  you  and  your  friend  can  now  denounce  slavery 
as  much  as  you  please  without  reflecting  on  your 
husband.  But  here  is  better  and  better,"  as  he  read 
on  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  which  might  not 
have  been  completely  acquiescent.  "  The  ore  from 
the  new  shaft  which  we  sent  over  to  be  analysed  is 
declared  to  be  the  richest    in    Ireland.     One  of  the 


70  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 

largest  copper  merchants  in  Swansea  is  ready  to 
smelt  any  quantity  of  it,  if  we  can  find  vessels  to  take 
it  over.  But  we  have  a  way  out  of  that.  Hear 
what  comes  next.  *  I  have  seen  Lord  Shelbourne's 
solicitor  and  I  have  shown  him  the  report  of  the 
analyst.  He  says  the  Earl  remains  determined  to 
restore  his  father's  furnaces  at  Kilmakilloge  and 
recover  his  estate  from  the  disorder  into  which  it  has 
lapsed.  He  waits  only  for  the  falling  in  of  the 
lease,  which  cannot  now  be  distant.  The  timber 
still  standing  in  Tuosist  will  be  amply  sufficient  to 
smelt  all  the  copper  which  you  can  raise.  On  the 
death  of  the  present  tenant,  which  is  reported  to  be 
imminent,  the  work  is  to  be  immediately  proceeded 
with,  and,  advanced  in  years  as  he  is,  the  Earl 
hopes,  before  he  leaves  the  world,  to  see  the  barony 
in  the  prosperous  condition  in  which  his  father 
left  it.' 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that  ? "  the  Colonel  said, 
rubbing  his  hands.  "  Here  is  a  ray  of  sunshine  in  the 
darkness ;  and  the  West  India  money  comes  pat 
to  the  purpose.  We  will  drive  another  galleiy  into 
the  mountain,  and  find  work  for  fifty  more  of  the 
starving  creatures  in  Castleton." 

Mrs.  Goring's  conscience  might  not  have  been 
entirely  satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  her 
husband  had  cleared  himself  of  the  guilt  of  slave 
owning.  But  the  results  of  the  sale  were  to  be  well 
applied  at  any  rate.  The  minister  was  delighted, 
and  if  he  saw  nothing  amiss  the  harm  could  not 
be  great. 

Again  the  Colonel  read  over  his  agent's  com- 
munication, making  the  most  of  what  was  agreeable 
before  proceeding  to  his  other  letters,  the  contents  of 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY, 


which  might  not  be  so  pleasant  Then,  with  a  grave 
face,  yet  struggling  with  a  smile  in  spite  of  himself, 
he  perused  the  next  which  came  to  hand.  It  was  a 
solemn-looking  packet,  sealed  with  the  episcopal 
arms  of  the  diocese. 

"  This  concerns  you.  Fox,"  he  said.  "  It  is  from 
the  Bishop's  secretary ;  you  will  hardly  believe  it 
genuine.     Listen." 

"  '  His  Lordship  has  heard  with  extreme  concern 
that  Colonel  Goring  has  been  setting  an  example  of 
disobedience  to  the  law,  which  his  Lordship  is  unable 
to  characterize  in  language  sufficiently  severe.  His 
Lordship  understands  that  Colonel  Goring  has  intro- 
duced into  his  estate,  from  England,  a  number  of 
persons  calling  themselves  Protestants,  professing 
opinions  offensive  to  God  and  dangerous  to  the  State ; 
that  he  has  erected  a  conventicle,  attached  to  his 
dwelling-house,  where  these  persons  assemble  for 
what  they  term  Divine  worship,  that  he  has  with 
him  as  a  minister,  a  follower  of  the  Schismatic  and 
Sectarian  George  Whitfield  ;  nay,  that  on  certain 
occasions  Colonel  Goring  has  himself  assumed  a 
preacher's  office.  His  Lordship  is  informed,  further, 
that  Colonel  Goring  has  opened  a  school  for  the 
instruction  of  the  children  of  these  persons,  to  which 
also  other  children  of  his  Irish  tenants  are  allowed 
access.  Colonel  Goring,  as  a  magistrate,  cannot  be 
ignorant  that,  in  so  acting,  he  is  violating  the  Canon 
Law  of  the  Church  and  the  Statute  Law  of  the  Land. 
His  Majesty  has,  indeed,  with  the  advice  of  Parlia- 
ment, been  pleased  to  concede  a  liberty  of  using  their 
own  forms  of  worship  to  certain  classes  of  Dissenters 
from  the  Established  Religion,  but  only  under  strict 
conditions,  which,  in  the  present  instance,  his  Lordship 


72  THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

cannot  find  to  have  been  complied  with.  The  Bishops 
of  Ireland,  in  reluctantly  consenting  to  this  concession, 
took  security  that  the  Indulgence  should  be  extended 
only  to  societies  in  whose  orthodoxy  in  essentials, 
and  in  whose  lo\'alty  to  the  Crown,  assured  con- 
fidence could  be  felt.  It  is  not  to  be  construed  as 
permitting  the  introduction  of  novel  forms  of  belief, 
which  may  lead  again,  as  they  have  led  before,  to 
rebellion  and  civil  disturbance.  The  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment therefore  permits  no  meeting-house  to  be  opened 
for  Divine  worship  which  has  not  been  licensed, 
either  by  the  Bishop  or  the  Archdeacon,  or  by  the 
magistrates  of  the  county  in  Quarter  Sessions.  No 
such  license  has  been  granted  to  Colonel  Goring  by 
either  of  these  courts,  nor,  if  the  tenets  of  Colonel 
Goring's  congregation  have  been  rightly  represented 
to  his  Lordship,  is  it  possible  that  such  a  license  will 
be  granted. 

"  *  The  opening  of  a  school  is  an  irregularity  of  a 
yet  more  serious  kind.  The  education  of  children 
has  been  confided  entirely  to  the  care  of  the  Church 
of  Ireland.  Under  the  Act  o{  Uniformity,  no  school 
of  any  kind  is  allowed  among  us  which  is  not  under 
the  direction  of  the  ordained  clergy. 

"  '  His  Lordship,  therefore,  while  regretting  the 
painful  duty  which  his  office  imposes  upon  him  '  (Hang 
the  fellow  !  what  does  he  mean  by  painful  duty  ?  It 
is  never  painful  to  do  a  duty  if  it  is  a  real  one.)  His 
Lordship,  in  short,  requires  me  to  shut  up  my  conven- 
ticle, and  send  my  people,  if  they  choose  to  remain  in 
Ireland,  to  their  Parish  Church. — The  doors  and  win- 
dows were  broken  out  a  hundred  years  ago,  and 
there  has  never  been  service  in  it  since. — If  no  Church 
school  is  within  reach,  the  children  are  to  be  sent  to 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  73 


the  Charter  School  at  Cork,  where  they  will  be  in- 
structed in  the  principles  of  the  pure  and  apostolical 
faith  established  in  this  land. 

"  '  His  Lordship  trusts  that  Colonel  Goring  will 
comply  at  once  with  these  directions,  and  spare  the 
Bishop  the  necessity,  which  may  otherwise  be  im- 
posed upon  him,  of  bringing  the  subject  before  the 
Primate.' 

"  Did  any  body  ever  hear  the  like  ? "'  Goring 
growled.  "  I  do  believe  Luther  was  right,  when  he 
said  that  Satan  seemed  sometimes  to  enter  into  these 
Bishops  as  he  entered  into  Judas  Iscariot.  They  will 
be  the  ruin  of  this  country  yet." 

"  John,  John,  don't  talk  like  that,"  said  his  wife  ; 
"  I  can't  bear  to  hear  it.  Why  didn't  you  listen  to 
me,  and  ask  for  the  license  ?  I  was  sure  harm  would 
come  of  it." 

"  No  harm  can  come  of  it.  I  have  only  to  write  to 
the  magistrates.  As  far  as  doctrines  go,  we  might  all 
be  members  of  the  Church  of  Ireland,  if  there  was 
any  church  for  us  to  attend.  And  as  to  loyalty,  our 
friends,  the  Presbyterians,  showed  something  of  it  at 
Derry  and  Enniskillen.  I  don't  mean  Satan,  really — 
1  mean  Ireland's  Evil  genius — say  what  you  will." 

"  Nonsense,  John," 

"  But  it  isn't  nonsense.  License,  indeed  !  The 
Catholic  Priests  ought  to  take  out  licenses.  Not  one 
in  a  hundred  has  a  license,  or  is  ever  asked  for  it. 
There  are  500  Protestant  Chapels  in  the  North,  which 
have  been  opened  under  the  Toleration  Act.  I  don't 
know  that  in  one  instance  there,  either,  a  license  has 
been  applied  for.  The  Law  having  been  once  passed, 
it  goes  as  a  matter  of  course — and,  as  to  the  schools, 
in  every  village  there  is   some  poor  Catholic  scholar 


74  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 


teaching  shoeless  urchins,  under  a  bridge,  to  read 
Ovid  and  Virgil.  It  is  astonishing,  by-the-bye,  how 
well  they  do  it.  They  may  break  the  law,  all  the 
country  over,  and  I  must  not  have  our  poor  boys  and 
girls  taught  reading  and  writing,  for  fear  I  make 
rebels  and  heretics  of  them." 

"  You  must  write  to  the  Bishop,  for  all  that,  or  I 
will  do  it  for  you,"  said  Mrs.  Goring,  as  she  rose  and 
went  out  under  the  verandah. 

"  I'll  tell  him,  what  is  quite  true,"  he  called  after 
her,  "  that  I  had  intended  to  build  a  little  church  at 
Glengariff  for  the  Protestant  families  that  are  about 
there,  and  that  I  will  do  it  yet,  unless  he  worries  me 
into  turning  Dissenter  in  earnest.  Of  course  I  will 
write  to  the  Grand  Jury,  and  I  will  see  that  you  are 
put  in  a  right  position,"  he  went  on,  turning  to  Fox. 
"  They  will  be  sending  their  Police  down  and  arrest- 
ing you  else.  But  you  see  what  a  stream  we  have 
to  struggle  against.  I  really  mean  it,  about  the  Glen- 
gariff church.  It  will  not  cost  very  much,  and  I 
should  prefer  the  old  service  for  my  wife  and  myself. 
Some  of  the  others  may  like  to  go  with  us— and  you, 
too,  for  all  that  I  know.  Wesley  goes  to  church,  I 
believe." 

"  And  I,  perhaps,  may  apply  to  the  Bishop  for 
ordination,"  said  Fox,  laughing.  "  I  believe  I  could 
satisfy  him  of  my  orthodoxy." 

"  We  will  hear  what  the  Primate  thinks  about  it.  I 
can  spare  the  Bishop  the  trouble  of  referring  to  him, 
for  I  must  go  myself,  one  of  these  days,  to  Dublin, 
and  I  will  hear  what  his  Grace  has  to  say.  But  it  is  a 
lovely  morning — we  have  stayed  in  too  long.  I  will 
just  glance  over  the  rest  of  my  letters,  and  we  will 
follow  Mrs.  Goring."    One  only  called  for  much  atten- 


THE  TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  75 


tion.     It  was  written  in  a  hand  which  was  evidently 
disguised,  and  ran  as  follows  : 

"  Sir, 

"  I  have  not  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
since  ye  came  to  your  Government  at  Dunboy — but 
I'll  see  ye  once  more  before  all  is  over,  and  set  ye 
on  your  way  off  the  stage  to  the  Elysian  fields. 
This  is  to  give  you  notice  that  your  coffin  is  making 
ready.  'Tis  all  your  own  fault,  and — for  the  slaughter 
ye  committed  on  poor  people  after  CuUoden  fight — 
you'll  be  served  as  Lord  Lovat's  agent  was.  God  be 
merciful  to  your  soul." 

"  Ireland  again  !  "  said  he,  throwing  it  down  with  a 
sigh.  "  I  am  glad  Elizabeth  is  not  here.  Don't  mention 
it,  for  these  letters  always  agitate  her.  I  have  had  so 
many  that  I  have  mostly  ceased  to  attend  to  them. 
They  mean  something  or  they  mean  nothing.  No 
one  can  say.  Pat  can  be  a  dangerous  fellow.  He 
knows  no  better,  and  one  must  be  ready  for  anything. 
But  this  is  peculiar.  Who  here  knows  about  Culloden 
fight  or  Lord  Lovat's  steward  ?  There  is  some  stranger 
about,  and  there  is  mischief  in  the  wind  beyond  the 
common.  But  come  out  now.  It  is  my  morning's 
levee.  You  have  never  yet  seen  the  genuine  Irishman, 
and  I  can  show  you  the  real  article," 

On  the  lawn  before  the  window  was  gathered  a 
motley  congregation  of  men,  women  and  children, 
sitting  crouched  upon  the  grass  ;  the  women  in  blue 
or  madder-coloured  cloaks,  the  hoods  drawn  over 
their  heads,  rocking  their  bodies  to  and  fro  and  moan- 
ing half-intelligible  sounds  ;  the  men  in  tattered  coats, 
unbuttoned  breeches  and  hats,  once  with  rim  and  crown 


76  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 

and  now  with  neither,  the  little  ones  bare-footed, 
bare-legged,  with  ragged,  uncombed  hair,  savages  but 
not  ''  noble  savages,"  whose  human  nature  had  to  be 
admitted,  but  admitted  reluctantly.  Each  one  of  them 
wanted  something  of  his  honour  or  the  good  lady. 
All  had  their  tale  of  misfortune,  probably  most  of  it 
lies.  But  it  was  low  water  with  the  whole  of  them, 
you  could  see  that  plainly  enough,  waifs  and  strays 
as  they  were  of  Irish  destiny,  helplessly  passive  as  the 
draggled  jelly-fish  left  dry  by  the  tide. 

The  nearest  of  them,  an  old  man  he  seemed,  but  age 
and  youth  were  not  easily  to  be  distinguished,  was 
sitting  on  a  stone  step,  sipping  leisurel}^  the  remains 
of  some  liquid  at  the  bottom  of  a  wine-glass. 

"  Why,  Tim,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  I  gave  you 
the  castor-oil  two  hours  ago.  Not  done  with  it 
yet  ?  " 

"  Ah,  your  honour,  the  Lord  be  good  to  you  for  that 
same,  the  blessed  drink  that  it  is.  Would  I  be  swal- 
lowing it  all  to  the  onst?  Sure  it's  drop  and  drop  I 
take  it,  and  I  wish  your  honour's  health  and  long  life 
to  ye,  at  ache  taste." 

"Your  honour  is  a  kind  master,  and  you  will  be 
good  to  me,"  said  the  next.  Your  honour  '11  mind 
the  little  haffer  ye  giv  me  the  last  fall.  Och,  it  was  a 
beautiful  little  haffer  that  she  was,  and  it  has 
plased  the  Lord  to  take  her  to  himself ;  and  what  will 
we  do  with  the  rint  day  coming  round  and  the 
childern  crying  for  the  milk  ?  " 

"Ah,  thin,  hould  your  tongue  with  ye  for  a  dis- 
contented crature  as  you  are,"  interrupted  a  fellow 
whose  head  was  bound  up  with  a  handkerchief 
"It  is  little  the  likes  of  you  hav  to  complain  of, 
with    the    best  landlord   over   ye   that    ever  came   to 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  77 

Ireland,  and  himself  direct  upon  ye,  and  none  to  come 
between.  It  is  not  one  of  your  own  tinants  that  I  am 
your  honour.  Glad  would  I  be  for  that  same  if  it  was 
the  Lord's  will  with  me.  It  is  on  Mr.  White's  land 
that  I  am,  and  it  was  hoping  that  your  honour  would 
spake  a  word  for  me,  that  I  am  troubling  ye  this 
day.  Sure  there  is  five  that  is  between  me  and  him. 
There  is  Mr.  Darby  that  is  in  London  that  has  the  big 
lase,  and  the  big  lase  is  parcelled  out  to  three  more, 
and  thim  again  to  others  before  they  come  to  us  that 
put  the  spade  into  the  ground  ;  and  each  one  of  thim 
all  will  have  his  profit  before  I'll  find  so  much  as  a 
potato  to  put  into  the  mouths  of  thim  that  belongs  to 
me.  I  was  thinking  maybe  your  honour  would  tell 
Mr.  White  that  if  he  would  just  dale  directly  with 
meself  that's  on  the  land,  and  would  put  thim  inter- 
lopers out  of  the  way,  I'd  giv  him  the  double  any  way 
of  what  he  receives  from  Mr.  Darby,  and  better  it 
would  be  for  the  both  of  us." 

"  That  is  true  for  you,  my  man,"  said  the  Colonel, 
"  but  it  is  little  I  can  do  for  you  or  Mr.  White  either. 
The  land  comes  to  us  tied  up  in  these  leases.  There 
is  half  my  own  that  I  can  do  nothing  with.  They 
will  say  there  was  no  compulsion  on  you  to  take  the 
farm.  If  you  could  not  live  upon  it  you  might  have 
gone  elsewhere." 

"  And  where  would  I  go,  }'our  honour  ?  And 
where  would  we  live  at  all  except  upon  the  land,  and 
where  would  I  find  a  bit  of  ground  for  me  except  in 
the  place  where  I  was  born  ?  They  tell  me  if  I  have 
so  much  to  pay  I  must  work  the  harder.  'Deed  then 
it  is  little  encouragement  we  have  to  work  when  if  I 
dry  a  bit  of  the  bog  they  raise  the  price  upon  me,  and 
he  that  farms  the  tithes   comes  and  takes  the  tinth 


78  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


of  the  crops  when  the  nine-tinths  have  gone  already 
for  the  rint." 

"  Which  of  them  was  it  that  broke  your  head  for 
you,  my  good  fellow  ?  "  the  Colonel  said.  "  You  seem 
to  have  got  a  bad  hurt  there." 

"  I'd  be  none  the  worse  for  a  bit  of  the  plaister, 
your  honour,  and  that  is  true,  if  the  good  lady  would 
be  plased  to  help  me  to  such  a  thing.  We  wint  up  in 
a  turf-boat  to  Bantry,  me  and  Bridget,  that  is  my 
wife  that's  here  ;  "  he  said,  pointing  to  a  big  bony 
woman  that  sat  on  the  grass  near  him.  "  There  was 
more  of  the  boys  with  us.  We  had  gone  to  see  Mr. 
White's  agent  and  learn  if  he  would  do  us  any  good. 
And  the  agent  was  in  Dublin,  and  we  could  not  see 
him  at  all.  So  we  had  a  taste  of  drink  with  the  lads 
of  the  town,  for  we  were  tired  after  the  long  row. 
How  it  was  I  don't  know,  but  they  got  disputing,  and 
from  that  to  joking  with  Bridget  there,  and  she  didn't 
like  it,  and  she  thought  I  was  not  standing  up  for  her 
as  I  ought  ;  and  indeed  what  need  for  me  ?  for  there 
is  not  a  stouter  woman  in  the  county  of  Cork,  and  it 
is  nine  children  that  she  has,  barring  one  that's  with 
the  Lord,  for  it's  overlaid  he  was.  W^ell,  Bridget  she 
got  angry,  and  she  whipped  the  stocking  off  the  foot 
of  her  and  dropped  a  ground  apple  into  the  toe. 
Och,  but  she  laid  about  her  that  time,  and  the  first 
person  she  hit  was  her  own  husband,  and  so  your 
honour  my  head  was  broke,  but  troth,  it  is  many  times 
she  has  broke  it,  the  darlin',  and  a  good  wife  she  is  to 
me.     The  Lord  receive  her  into  glory." 

Goring  took  down  the  man's  name  and  address,  for 
there  were  many  more  petitioners  waiting  to  be  at- 
tended to,  and  then  passed  him  over  for  his  wounds  to 
be  looked  to.     He  was  the  arbiter  of  all  disputes  in 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  79 

the  barony  and  the  universal  doctor  in  all  diseases 
and  accidents.  Women  had  come  to  denounce  each 
other  for  scandal-mongering — somebody's  pig  had 
broken  the  wall  of  the  next  garden — somebody's 
donkey  had  eaten  a  neighbour's  cabbage — neighbour- 
ing cottiers  were  wrangling  over  their  boundaries — 
babies  had  been  changed  in  the  cradles  by  the  "  good 
people  " — and  the  Colonel  had  to  advise  whether  the 
changeling  should  be  thrown  into  the  sea  or  into 
the  fire.  The  commonest  demand  was  for  medicine 
to  cure  ailments  for  which  no  cure  was  possible,  as 
they  had  grown  out  of  neglect  and  poverty.  Children 
had  burnt  their  hands  and  legs,  or  upset  the  kettle 
and  scalded  themselves.  Croups,  fevers,  broken  limbs, 
and  wounds — the  Colonel  was  to  prescribe  for  them 
all.  He  had  but  to  speak  the  word  and  it  would  be 
enough.  They  would  hang  a  draught  about  their 
necks  and  believe  the  effect  would  be  the  same  as  if 
they  swallowed  it. 

"  You  see  these  poor  people,"  Goring  said  to  his 
companion  when  the  lawn  had  been  almost  cleared, 
"  they  have  absolute  confidence  in  me.  They  trust  me 
with  their  lives  and  their  properties.  Everything  that 
I  tell  them  they  do.  Every  judgment  that  I  give  they 
respect.  They  know  that  I  mean  them  well.  They 
believe  in  me,  and  I  suppose  that  in  their  way  they 
have  a  regard  for  me.  Yet  of  all  the  men  you  have  seen 
here  to-day  there  is  hardly  one  who  would  not  try  to 
shoot  me  if  he  was  so  ordered  by  the  Secret  Societies  ! 
There  is  not  one,  man  or  woman,  who,  if  I  was  killed 
by  the  smugglers,  would  help  to  bring  the  murderers 
to  justice.  They  are  taught  from  their  cradles  that 
English  rule  is  the  cause  of  all  their  miseries.  They 
were  as  ill  off  under  their  own  chiefs  ;  but  they  would 


So  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


bear  from  their  natural  leaders  what  they  will  not 
bear  from  us,  and  if  we  have  not  made  their  lot  more 
wretched  we  have  not  made  it  any  better.  There  is 
not  a  race  in  the  world  who  would  be  happier  or  more 
loyal  if  they  were  governed  with  a  firm  and  just  hand. 
England  has  tried  every  other  remedy.  This,  which 
is  the  only  one  which  can  succeed,  she  has  never 
tried,  and  I  fear  she  never  will." 

Such  comfort,  help,  admonition,  as  was  possible, 
had  been  distributed  to  the  various  applicants,  and 
they  had  been  dismissed  for  the  day.  The  women 
had  fallen  chiefly  to  Mrs.  Goring,  and  her  share  of 
the  morning's  labour  had  not  been  the  lightest.  But 
the  tongues  were  at  last  silent,  and  the  owners  of  them 
had  gone  away,  to  return  most  of  them  with  fresh 
complaints  on  the  morrow.  There  lingered  only  a 
girl,  barefooted,  but  neatly  dressed,  who  had  crouched 
patiently  at  the  back  of  the  rest,  waiting  till  their 
clamour  was  over,  as  the  Irish  al\va\'s  do  when  they 
have  a  real  sorrow. 

"  And  who  may  you  be  ?  "  said  the  lady.  "  I  never 
saw  you  before — you  are  a  stranger !  " 

"  I  am  called  Moriarty,  your  ladyship.  I  am  from 
Glenbeg,  beyond  the  mountains  yonder,"  the  girl 
answered  in  a  low,  modest  voice. 

"And  what  do  you  want  with  us?"  Mrs.  Goring 
enquired  with  interest,  for  this  last  petitioner  was  un- 
like any  of  the  rest.     ''  What  can  we  do  for  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  my  lady  !  You  have  a  kind  face,  and  you  will 
not  be  angered  with  me  for  coming  to  you  !  Maybe 
I  shouldn't  be  here,  but  where  I'd  go  else  in  the  wide 
world  1  don't  know,  and  it's  not  for  myself  that  I'm 
seeking  you.  My  father— his  honour  the  Colonel  will 
have  heard  the  name  of  him — has  the  farm  at  the 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


head  of  the  glen  that's  above  x^rdgroom.  There  is 
none  but  meself  to  hve  with  him,  and  none  but  him 
to  take  care  of  me,  for  my  mother  is  dead,  the  Lord 
be  good  to  her  soul  !  and  my  brothers  are  gone 
away  beyond  the  seas,  and  we  know  nothing  what 
may  have  become  of  them  !  And  my  father  has  got 
the  sickness  upon  him,  and  he  is  upon  his  bed  and  he 
speaks  never  a  word  !  And  Father  McCarty  came 
up  from  Eyris  and  give  him  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
and  tould  him  he  need  come  no  more,  for  it  was  six 
miles  away,  and  my  father  would  soon  be  in  glory. 
But  that  was  two  days  back,  and  he  is  moaning  yet, 
and  he  has  been  a  kind  father  to  me,  and  I'd  heard 
speak  of  your  ladyship  and  of  his  honour  that  there 
was  none  like  ye.  You'll  know,  maybe,  what  we 
should  do,  and  you  will  give  him  back  to  us  !  " 

The  Colonel  had  by  this  time  joined  his  wife, 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  your  father  ?  "  he  asked. 
"  What  does  he  complain  of?  " 

"  'Deed,  your  honour,  how  can  I  know  what  is  the 
matter  with  him  ?  He  just  lies  on  his  back  and  never 
spakes  a  word,  but  he  puts  his  hand  upon  his  breast 
and  moans,  and  looks  wild  out  of  tlie  eyes  of  him  !  " 

"  Does  he  take  any  food  ?  Wliat  have  you  given 
him  to  eat?  Perhaps  he  has  swallowed  something 
that  has  gone  amiss  with  him  !  " 

"  Sorra  bit  of  anything  has  passed  his  lips  since  the 
priest  came,"  she  sobbed,  "  and,  indeed,  there  has  been 
little  in  the  house  for  either  of  us,  since  the  drivers 
came  and  took  the  cows  away,  barring  a  few  spades 
of  potatoes  that  is  left  in  the  bog !  " 

"  My  good  girl,"  said  Goring,  "  I  cannot  prescribe 
for  a  sick  man  in  such  a  state  as  you  describe  with- 
out seeing  him.     How  far  off  do   you  live  ?  " 

6 


82  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

" 'Tis  eight  Irish  miles  by  the  road,  your  honour, 
and  it  is  a  wild  place  and  a  wild  track  to  it !  And  it 
is  time  I  was  on  the  \^'ay  home,  for  I  left  a  friend  from 
a  cabin  that  is  not  far  off  to  watch  if  he  wanted  any- 
thing while  I  was  away,  but  he  can  ill  bear  me  out  of 
his  sight,  and  I  must  be  getting  back  before  the  sun  is 
under  the  hill.  It  is  not  for  your  honour  to  be  putting 
yourself  out  for  the  likes  of  us  that  don't  belong  to 
you.  I  thought  ma}^be  }^e'd  give  me  something  to  take 
home  with  me  that  would  do  him  good  ;  but  if  ye 
cannot,  God  save  your  honour  and  your  ladyship,  and 
kindly  thank  ye  !  " 

She  gathered  herself  up,  curtsied,  and  was  going 
away,  but  she  staggered  after  a  few  steps  and  sank 
again  on  the  grass. 

"  God  help  them  !  "  the  Colonel  said,  *'  I  believe  they 
are  both  starving  !  Take  the  girl  in  and  give  her 
something  to  eat.  She  has  come  all  this  way  on  foot 
this  morning  and  tasted  nothing.  I  will  go  to 
Glenbeg  myself ;  it  is  but  a  morning's  walk.  A  boy 
can  lead  a  pony  with  a  basket  and  food,  and  this  poor 
young  creature  can  ride." 

Faint  as  she  was  she  again  struggled  to  her  feet 
and  insisted  that  she  was  strong  enough  to  walk  and 
must  set  out  at  once.  "  There  was  no  need,"  she 
said,  "  for  his  honour  to  be  toiling  over  the  hills,  and 
maybe  he  might  meet  with  those  he'd  be  sorry  to  fall 
in  with." 

But  she  had  overrated  her  powers.  She  was  utterly 
exhausted,  and  was  obliged  with  many  tears  to 
own  it. 

Rest  and  food  were  indispensable  before  she  could 
even  sit  upon  a  horse,  while  if  her  father  was  to  be 
saved,  there  was  not  a  moment  to  be  lost. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  83 


Goring,  who  by  this  time  knew  something  of  Irish 
character,  discovered  in  her  objection  to  his  going 
that  there  was  something  which  she  had  not  told 
him  behind.  There  was  a  shorter  path  to  Glenbeg, 
over  the  mountains,  entirely  solitary,  with  which  he 
was  perfectly  familiar.  In  quieter  times  he  had  shot 
over  the  moors  on  the  ridge,  and  knew  every  turn  and 
point  among  them.  The  moors  would  be  safer  than 
the  road,  and  walking  would  be  safer  than  riding,  as 
he  would  be  less  likely  to  be  observed  if  dangerous 
people  were  abroad.  He.  determined  to  go  alone 
taking  his  gun  and  dog  with  him,  as  if  his  object  was 
but  a  brace  or  two  of  moor  fowl.  Putting  a  flask, 
with  some  sandwiches'  and  restoring  medicines,  in  his 
pocket  for  immediate  use,  he  whistled  to  his  favourite 
pointer  and  started  up  the  hillside,  leaving  orders  with 
a  servant  to  follow  on  horseback  with  the  girl  by  the 
road  as  soon  as  she  should  be  able  to  move. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

It  was  a  glorious  September  morning,  and  still 
wanted  an  hour  of  noon  when  Colonel  Goring  set 
out  from  his  house.  Glenbeg  lay  the  other  side  of 
the  watershed,  on  the  slope  towards  the  Kenmare 
River,  and  the  way  to  it  was  across  the  dividing  ridge. 
The  scenery  is  treeless,  and  utterly  wild  and  desolate. 
After  reaching  the  top  of  the  mountain  range,  you 
walk  for  miles  among  heathery  moors  and  swamps, 
where  the  streams  rise  which  fall  east  and  west  into 
one  or  other  of  the  two  bays.  Half-a-dozen  ragged 
peaks  break  the  outline  of  the  range,  buried  in  clouds 
in  wild  weather,  on  such  a  morning  as  the  present, 
standing  sharp  and  clear  against  the  azure  sky.    From 

6* 


84  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 


Lackawee,  which  is  one  of  the  loftiest  of  them,  you 
look  immediately  down  upon  Glenbeg  Lake,  two 
thousand  feet  below  you.  Beyond  it  is  Ardgroom 
Harbour  and  Kenmare  River,  and  far  away  the 
Killarney  Reeks  and  the  Purple  Mountains  and 
Mangerton. 

Leaving  Hungry  Hill  far  on  his  right.  Colonel 
Goring  ascended  the  brook  which  fell  into  the  sea 
behind  his  house.  After  climbing  sharply  for  a  couple 
of  miles  he  reached  the  cradle  of  the  stream  in  a 
wide  morass.  The  peat  was  dry  in  the  clear  autumn 
weather.  The  air  was  fresh  and  delicious,  and  per- 
fumed with  heather.  On  the  banks,  between  which 
the  tiny  rivulet  trickled  along,  were  patches  of  rich, 
green  grass,  where  sheep  and  cattle  ought  to  have 
been  feeding,  but  there  were  no  signs  of  either,  nor  of 
any  human  creature.  Nature  was  left  alone  in  her 
wasteful  beauty,  and  as  there  was  no  wind,  the  silence 
was  unbroken,  save  by  the  croak  of  a  passing  raven, 
the  sharp  bark  of  an  eagle,  or  the  whirr  of  some  old 
cock  grouse,  whom  the  dog  had  scented  out  among 
the  moss  hags.  Goring's  thoughts  were  so  much 
occupied  that  more  than  one  fine  point  had  been 
neglected,  and  the  dog  had  looked  round  in  reproach- 
ful surprise  as  the  bird,  whose  presence  he  had 
indicated  so  skilfully,  flew  away  unharmed.  The 
Colonel  had  been  a  famous  shot  in  his  youth.  To 
please  his  poor  companion  he  brought  down  a  brace  of 
birds  as  he  walked  ;  but  he  was  in  a  hurry  and  could 
not  linger.  He  had  crossed  the  bog,  and  reached  the 
hillside  the  other  side  of  it.  A  few  hundred  \'ards 
distant  rose  the  highest  point  in  all  the  neighbour- 
hood, with  a  cairn  of  stones  on  the  top  of  it.  He  was 
examining  the   shape  of   it,   and   speculating  on   the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  85 


origin  of  its  singular  name,  Maulin,  when  he  ob- 
served the  dog  questing  round  in  a  way  which  showed 
that  he  scented  something,  but  was  not  satisfied  as  to 
what  was  before  him.  The  dog  stood,  then  broke  his 
point  and  ran  on  again  in  the  direction  of  the  cairn, 
then  stopped  again,  as  if  puzzled  and  uncertain.  He 
supposed  at  first  that  a  pack  of  grouse  might  be 
running  on  in  front,  but  instead  of  carrying  his  head 
up  as  he  would  have  done  had  there  been  birds  before 
him,  the  animal  was  snuffling  uneasily  along  the 
ground,  but  always  making  towards  the  top  of  the 
hill. 

The  manner  was  so  peculiar  that  Goring  followed, 
curious  to  know  what  it  could  be.  As  he  advanced, 
a  couple  of  ravens  rose  just  out  of  gunshot,  apparently 
from  among  the  stones  of  the  cairn.  Another  rising 
immediately  after,  he  concluded  that,  scanty  as  the 
sheep  on  the  hills  seemed  to  be,  one  of  them  must 
be  lying  there  which  had  come  in  some  way  by  its 
end.  He  turned,  called  the  dog  off,  and  was  going  on, 
when  he  heard  himself  suddenly  hailed  by  a  human 
voice.  From  behind  a  grey  rock  a  few  yards  from 
him  there  stepped  out  a  tall,  slight,  athletic,  active- 
looking  man,  who  might  be  some  five-and-twenty 
years  old.  Eccentric  as  was  the  costume  of  the  Irish 
Squireens  of  the  period,  it  was  evidently  not  to  them 
that  he  belonged.  He  had  a  hat  like  a  Spanish 
muleteer,  a  short,  braided  jacket,  breeches  supported 
by  a  belt  about  his  waist,  and  light  boots  and  leggings' 
He  carried  a  gun  upon  his  arm,  and  looked  like  a 
sportsman — a  gentleman  and  a  foreigner. 

Goring  observed  him  with  some  surprise  and  some 
suspicion.  The  stranger,  however,  seemed  perfectly 
unembarrassed.     "  Good    morning,  sir,"    he    said    in 


86  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 

correct  English,  though  with  a  slightly  foreign 
accent.  *'  It  is  a  fine  day  among  the  hills.  You 
have  had  sport  ?    I  heard  your  gun  half-an-hour  ago." 

"  There  are  a  few  birds  on  the  lower  ground," 
answered  the  Colonel,  "  but  not  many.  There  is 
little  game  in  this  country  to  tempt  visitors.  You 
came  this  morning  from  Kenmare,  I  presume  ? " 

"  I  came  from  the  place  where  I  spent  last  night," 
replied  the  stranger  smiling.  "  I  am  on  a  mountain 
walk  with  my  gun,  like  yourself.  That  is  all  which 
we  at  present  know  of  each  other.  May  I  ask  to 
whom  I  am  speaking  ?  " 

"  I  am  Colonel  Goring,  of  Dunboy,  sir,  the 
principal  magistrate  in  this  district — for  want  of  a 
better." 

"  I  supposed  as  much,"  the  stranger  said.  "  There 
cannot  be  two  persons  in  such  a  neighbourhood  so 
distinguished  in  appearance  as  I  have  always  heard 
that  officer  to  be." 

"  Having  told  who  I  am,"  Goring  said,  not  choosing 
to  notice  the  compliment,  "  it  becomes  my  duty  to 
enquire  in  turn  who  you  may  be  ?  " 

"  It  matters  little,  sir,"  the  stranger  answered.  "  I 
call  myself  a  foreigner.  I  was  born  yonder,  I  believe," 
and  he  pointed  toMacGillicuddy's  Reeks,  "  but  I  have 
passed  most  of  my  life  abroad.  I  am  here  but  for  a 
few  days,  and  am  using  my  time  to  look  about  me  in 
your  mountains.  In  a  week  I  shall  be  gone.  This, 
perhaps,  is  information  enough." 

"  I  am  sorry  to  seem  discourteous,"  said  the 
Colonel,  "  but  it  is  not  enough,  and  since  I  have 
told  you  that  I  am  a  magistrate,  you  will  understand 
why  it  is  not  enough.  You  carry  a  gun.  Have  you 
a  license  for  it  ? 


THE  TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  87 

"  I  have  such  license  as  I  give  to  myself,"  the  youth 
coolly  replied.  ''  In  the  country  that  I  came  from 
that  is  sufficient  and  must  suffice  here." 

**  It  will  not  suffice  here,  sir,"  the  Colonel  said 
sharply.  ''  I  must  suppose  that  you  are  ignorant  of 
the  rules.  No  person  is  allowed  to  carry  arms  in  this 
country  who  has  not  satisfied  the  authorities  that  he 
is  entitled  to  carry  them.  The  law  requires  me  to 
insist  that  you  give  a  fuller  account  of  yourself." 

''  The  law  may  require  you,  sir,"  the  stranger  re- 
joined, with  the  same  mocking  calmness.  "  The  law 
requires  many  things  in  Ireland  which  it  does  not  get 
I  am  told.  I  may  ask  too,  what  law  ?  Kerry  law,  I 
have  heard,  is  to  do  no  right  and  to  take  no  wrong. 
We  are  in  Cork  now,  I  believe.  The  border  is  within 
a  few  yards  of  us,  but  we  are  on  the  eastern  side. 
What  the  law  is  in  Cork  you  may  see  a  few  yards 
from  you." 

He  pointed  to  the  cairn.  Goring  looked  and  he 
saw,  if  it  was  not  a  dream,  something  like  a  human 
head  projecting  above  the  stones.  The  eye-sockets 
were  empty ;  the  skin  and  flesh  were  torn  from  the 
bones.  The  beaks  of  the  ravens  and  the  teeth  of  the 
mountain  foxes  had  broken  through  the  skull.  Half 
the  brain  had  been  devoured  and  the  rest  was  oozing 
down  in  a  ghastly  stream  over  the  neck.  Goring's 
nerves  had  been  hardened  on  the  battlefield,  but  a 
sight  so  horrid  and  so  unlooked-for  for  a  moment 
entirely  overcame  him.  He  recovered  himself  and 
sprang  up  the  cairn.  Through  the  chinks  between 
the  boulders  he  could  make  out  the  body  of  a  man 
but  lately  dead,  for  the  clothing  was  unsoiled  and  dry, 
and  no  rain  had  fallen  since  it  had  been  placed  in  its 
present  position.     It  was  fast  bound  to  a  stake  which 


88  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


had  been  driven  into  a  crack  in  the  rock  and  the 
stones  had  been  heaped  up  round  it. 

"  That,  sir,"  said  the  stranger,  "  is,  or  was,  two  da}'S 
since,  what  they  call  here  a  tithe  proctor.  The  tithe 
is  a  tax  which  the  law,  of  which  you  spoke,  requires 
the  Catholic  peasants  of  this  country  to  pay  to  a 
minister  whom  they  have  never  seen,  in  support  of  a 
religion  in  which  they  do  not  believe.  The  collection 
of  this  tax  being  dangerous,  the  minister  is  content 
with  half  of  it,  which  he  enjoys  in  safety  five  hundred 
miles  away.  The  proctor  keeps  the  other  half  in 
return  for  the  risk  which  he  runs,  and  now  and  then, 
as  you  see,  it  goes  hard  with  him.  I  am  told  the 
proctors,  as  a  body,  do  not  object  to  an  accident  now 
and  then,  as  it  keeps  up  the  price  of  their  services." 

"  Whatever  else  I  see,"  replied  Colonel  Goring,  "  I 
see  a  very  dangerous  person  before  me  at  this 
moment.  A  foul  murder  has  been  committed  ;  I  find 
you,  sir,  upon  the  spot,  and  by  your  own  confession 
you  know  something  of  the  assassins.  There  must  be 
an  instant  inquir}-,  and  I  cannot  lose  sight  of  yourself 
There  is  a  poor  man,  a  mile  or  two  beyond  this,  in 
danger  of  death,  to  whom  I  am  carrying  relief,  and  I 
will  not  leave  him  even  for  this  frightful  business  ;  you 
will  have  to  accompany  me,  sir,  and  will  then  return 
with  me  to  Dunboy." 

"  I  shall  be  sorry  to  disappoint  you.  Colonel,"  the 
stranger  rejoined,  still  with  unbroken  composure. 
'*  My  engagements  and  my  pleasure  require  my 
presence  elsewhere.  I  am  armed,  as  you  perceive,  as 
well  as  yourself.  I  am  as  light  of  foot  as  you  are, 
and  possibly  lighter.  I  am  ready,  if  }'OU  please  to 
listen  to  me,  to  give  )'ou  such  information  as  I  think 
expedient.     You  will   choose  whether  you  will  hear 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


me  quietly,  and  then  leave  me  to  go  my  way,  or  take 
your  chance  of  what  you  can  get  by  violence.  I  tell 
you  distinctly  that  of  this  man's  death  I  knew  nothing 
till  last  night.  I  came  hither  merely  to  see  with  my 
own  eyes  an  example  of  Irish  revenge.  Possibly 
his  death  was  not  intended.  Those  who  brought  him 
hither  may  have  meant  to  give  him  a  warning  which 
he  would  not  forget,  and  the  cold  and  the  terror  may 
have  killed  him.  For  the  sick  man  you  speak  of,  if 
you  mean  Moriarty  of  Glenbeg,  you  may  spare  your 
anxiety.     Help  has  already  reached  him." 

Colonel  Goring  could  not  refuse  a  certain  admira- 
tion for  the  coolness  with  which  he  was  defied.  But 
his  duty  was  still  plain.  "  I  choose  nothing  and  I 
promise  nothing,"  he  said.  "  I  must  arrest  you  in  the 
king's  name." 

"  It  matters  not,"  the  stranger  answered.  "  I  will 
tell  you  what  it  is  good  for  you  to  know.  Attempt  to 
touch  me  and  I  am  gone ;  but  you  are  said  to  be  a 
friend  to  the  poor  Irish,  or  as  much  a  friend  as  any 
Englishman  can  be,  and  I  will  save  you,  so  far  as  I 
can,  from  running  into  danger.  The  old  man-  whom 
you  are  on  the  way  to  visit  has  held  the  farm  of 
Glenbeg  for  forty  years,  and  his  father  held  it  before 
him.  The  rent  they  paid  was  light  and  the  Annesleys, 
or  whoever  they  were  that  owned  the  land,  gave  them 
no  trouble.  The  estate  passed  to  others.  The 
Moriartys  held  by  custom,  and  custom  was  forgotten. 
It  was  let  and  underlet  again,  according  to  the 
modern  usage.  The  occupying  tenant's  rent  was 
trebled,  and  on  such  terms  he  could  not  live.  The  law 
allowed  these  things  and  the  courts  maintained  them. 
He  would  have  starved  or  have  been  driven  out,  but 
he  found  friends  where  the  owners  and  the  middle- 


90  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


men  were  content  that  he  should  find  them.  He 
found  traders  who  would  give  him  twice  the  market 
price  for  his  fleeces.  He  dealt  with  them.  He  paid 
his  exorbitant  rent  with  the  profits  which  he  was  thus 
able  to  make,  and  all  went  well  again  till  you,  sir, 
came  into  the  country  and  ordered  that  the  trade 
which  had  saved  him  should  cease.  You  drove  off 
the  foreigners  who  came  to  buy  ;  you  shut  the  har- 
bours against  them  ;  you  seized  their  boats  ;  you 
insisted  that  the  law  should  be  obeyed.  The  effects 
of  what  you  have  done  you  may  see  in  the  fate  of 
this  Moriarty  of  Glenbeg.  Your  laws  were  unjust. 
Natural  justice  refused  to  recognise  them,  and  natural 
justice  you  will  not  allow.  It  proves  too  strong  for 
you.  This  poor  man  could  no  longer  meet  the 
middleman's  demands.  His  rent  fell  in  arrears.  For 
two  years  he  paid  nothing  because  he  could  not.  The 
middleman,  an  attorney  at  Kenmare,  seized  his  sheep 
and  cattle.  He  struggled  on  with  his  oat  patches  and 
potatoes.  On  the  top  of  all  came  the  proctor,  a 
month  since,  in  the  name  of  religion,  swept  off  his 
crops,  carried  away  the  poor  furniture  of  his  cabin, 
and  left  him,  with  his  child,  to  perish.  That  natural 
justice,  sir,  which  your  laws  set  aside,  would  not  allow 
such  an  act  to  go  unpunished. 

"  There  were  persons,  individually  unknown  to  me, 
who  heard  what  had  been  done.  The  instrument  of 
legal  tyranny  had  himself  sought  his  occupation, 
and  lived  by  the  exercise  of  it.  They  concluded 
that  such  a  wretch  required  to  be  dealt  with.  They 
caught  him,  it  needs  not  to  say  how  or  where,  they 
brought  him  hither,  close  to  the  scene  of  his  crime, 
that  they  might  make  an  example  of  him  to  the 
country     round.     They    fastened     a    stake    in     the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY,  91 


middle  of  yonder  cairn,  they  bound  him  to  it,  and 
they  bound  his  arms  to  his  side.  They  piled  the 
stones  round  him  to  his  neck  and  left  him  with  the 
eagles  and  the  ravens. 

"As  for  Moriarty,  other  friends,  who  had  traded  with 
him  in  better  days,  heard  last  night  that  he  was  dying 
of  hunger.  Relief  was  sent  to  him  immediately,  and 
it  arrived  soon  after  the  poor  man's  daughter  had  gone 
for  help  to  you.  They  were  in  time  to  save  him,  and 
you  need  have  no  further  anxiety  on  his  behalf.  I 
further  assure  you,  since  you  may  have  to  make 
enquiries  into  the  execution  of  this  proctor  here,  that 
Moriarty  was  in  his  bed  and  unconscious  when  the 
wretch  received  his  due,  and  is  as  ignorant  as  myself 
by  whom  the  punishment  was  inflicted.  Do  not 
therefore  trouble  further  an  innocent  and  injured  man. 
For  yourself,  sir,  let  me  give  you  a  friendly  warning. 
I  bear  you  no  ill  will,  but  there  are  others  who  do. 
I  advise  you  expressly  to  go  no  further  on  your 
present  errand." 

With  these  words,  and  politely  touching  his  hat 
when  he  had  done,  the  youth  sprang  lightly  behind 
the  rock  against  which  he  had  leant  while  he  was 
speaking.  Goring  darted  forward  to  detain  him, 
only  however  to  see  his  late  companion  bounding 
down  the  hill  like  a  cricket  ball,  and  passing  out  of 
sight  round  a  spur  of  the  mountain.  Pursuit  was 
useless,  and  he  was  left  alone  to  consider  what  he 
would  do.  The  stranger  he  was  satisfied  must  be 
one  of  the  officers  of  the  French  Irish  Brigade  who 
had  come  on  a  recruiting  expedition.  They  had 
disappeared  after  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  but 
some  of  them  had  been  reported  to  him  as  being 
again    in    their   old    haunts ;    and    if  they   were    not 


92  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


personally  concerned  in  the  local  outrages  of  the 
district,  it  was  evident  that  they  were  in  confidential 
relations  with  the  insurgent  leaders,  were  acquainted 
with  their  secrets  and  in  active  sympathy  with  their 
objects.  That  a  crime  so  audacious  should  have  been 
perpetrated  within  four  miles  of  his  own  residence 
and  almost  within  sight  of  it,  was  a  frightful  evidence 
of  the  revival  of  a  lawless  spirit.  He  connected  it 
with  the  letter  which  he  had  received  in  the  morning. 
The  sensational  features  of  it  had  been  borrowed  from 
the  Whiteboys  of  Tipperary,  and  indicated  a  concert  of 
action.  That  the  people  had  real  wrongs  to  com- 
plain of,  that  the  agrarian  administration  had  been 
careless  and  cruel,  was  as  well  known  to  Colonel 
Goring  as  to  the  most  furious  Irish  conspirator. 
But  acts  of  lawless  ferocity  would  only  irritate  the 
English  Government  into  spasmodic  severities,  which 
would  leave  things  worse  than  they  were,  and  place 
any  rational  remedy  for  the  chronic  misery  of  Ireland 
at  a  greater  distance  than  ever. 

He  forced  himself  to  climb  again  to  the  top  of  the 
cairn  and  examine  the  condition  of  the  being  who 
had  perished  there.  The  blocks  of  stone  had  been  so 
disposed  round  his  body  that  no  injury  to  a  vital 
organ  could  have  hastened  the  conclusion  of  his 
sufferings.  There  he  must  have  stood,  motionless, 
helpless,  on  that  desolate  height  while  the  sun  had 
risen  and  had  set  into  the  sea,  the  power  to  cry 
taken  from  him  by  a  gag  forced  into  the  mouth, 
while  the  carrion  birds  gathered  round  and  stood 
watching  with  deliberate  eyes  till  life  and  strength 
had  waned  sufficiently  to  allow  them  to  begin  their 
repast. 

Every  detail  which  Goring  could  observe  confirmed 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  93 


the  stranger's  story.  The  body  was  bound  to  a  stake 
as  he  had  said.  The  arms  had  been  pinioned  to  his 
side.  The  flesh,  though  torn  by  the  ravens,  had  not 
begun  to  decompose.  At  the  utmost,  life  could  not 
have  been  extinct  more  than  48  hours.  He  piled 
stones  on  the  head  to  protect  what  was  left  of  it  till 
the  remains  could  be  carried  down  and  buried.  The 
discovery  ought  immediately  to  be  published.  The 
loss  of  two  or  three  hours  however,  was  of  no  serious 
consequence,  and  Goring  decided  to  go  on  first,  in 
spite  of  the  warning,  to  Moriarty's  farm  house.  The 
danger  with  which  he  was  threatened  was  itself 
inviting,  for  it  implied  that  he  might  come  on  the 
traces  of  the  murderers  before  the  scent  was  cold. 
As  to  the  risk  to  himself,  it  was  not  that  he  was 
exceptionally  brave,  but  he  never  thought  about  the 
matter.  He  was  convinced  that  nothing  could 
happen  to  him  except  what  was  ordained  by  his 
Master.  This  he  was  equally  con\'inced  would 
happen  whether  he  troubled  himself  about  it  or 
not. 

Leaving  the  Cairn,  with  its  horrid  contents,  he 
strode  rapidly  along  the  high  ground  in  the  opposite 
direction  from  that  in  which  the  stranger  had  dis- 
appeared. After  walking  for  half  an  hour  he  turned 
the  shoulder  of  Lackawee,  and  saw  the  peaceful 
waters  of  the  Lough  stretched  out  at  his  feet.  Often 
when  grouse  shooting,  a  few  )'ears  back,  he  had 
stopped  for  his  luncheon  at  that  spot,  lying  on  the 
-perfumed  heather,  and  watering  his  whiskey  from  a 
spring  which  bursts  there  out  of  the  mountain  side. 

Beautiful  it  was  as  ever,  the  quiet  Islands  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Kenmare  River,  dark  and  solid,  and  the 
far  off  Skelligs  rising  blue  on  the  horizon  as  if  shaped 


94  THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


out  of  transparent  mist.  But  Goring  was  too  anxious 
now  to  think  about  the  landscape.  The  cabin  which 
was  the  object  of  his  visit,  stood  on  a  green  bank  on 
an  Island  formed  by  a  river,  which  divided  behind  it, 
then  joined  again  in  a  single  stream,  and  flowed  out 
into  the  Lough.  It  was  eighteen  hundred  feet  below 
him,  but  the  slope  was  grassy  and  clear  of  stones,  and, 
partly  sliding,  partly  running,  he  was  soon  at  the 
bottom.  The  cottage  itself  was  not  superior  to  the 
ordinary  Irish  cabins.  The  walls  were  of  mud,  the 
roof  of  thatch,  half  of  which  had  been  torn  off  by 
the  wind.  A  hole  in  the  middle  of  it  blackened  with 
soot  served  for  a  chimney,  and  a  hole  in  the  wall  for 
a  window.  Glass  it  had  none,  and  a  wisp  of  straw  was 
thrust  into  it  to  keep  out  cold  and  rain.  The  door 
had  fallen  off  its  hinges  and  lay  on  the  ground.  Out- 
side were  half  a  dozen  small  green  enclosures  divided 
by  stone  walls,  where  sheep  and  cows  and  geese  and 
pigs  had  once  fed,  and  perhaps  fattened,  but  all  were 
now  deserted. 

Four  acres  of  yellow  stubble  clean  of  weed,  showed 
where  an  oat-crop  had  grown  and  had  been  cut  and 
carried.  Four  weeks  since  those  oats  had  been 
yellowing  for  the  harvest.  The  oats  were  gone,  and 
the  man  who  had  taken  them  away  was  rotting  on 
the  hill-top. 

In  wet  weather  the  cabin  itself  could  only  be  ap- 
proached by  wading.  The  water  was  now  low,  and 
there  was  a  line  of  stones  which  were  dry.  Looking 
sharply  on  all  sides,  for  he  could  not  tell  who  or  what 
might  be  near,  Colonel  Goring  stepped  across,  and 
went  up  to  it.  Not  a  symptom  was  to  be  seen  of 
any  living  thing ;  the  sunshine  streamed  in  freely 
through   the   open   door  ;    he   entered  ;   a    spinning- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  95 


wheel  lay  overturned  on  the  floor,  with  the  fragments 
of  a  broken  stool.  There  were  ashes  on  the  hearth, 
but  they  were  cold.  The  scanty  earthenware,  the 
iron  hook  and  kettle,  which  the  poorest  Irish  house- 
hold cannot  do  without,  were  all  gone.  At  first  it 
seemed  as  if  there  was  not  so  much  as  a  bed,  for  none 
could  be  seen,  not  even  the  rush  heap  or  peat  stack 
which  occasionally  serves  for  one,  nor  did  it  seem  as  if 
there  was  space  for  any  second  room.  Looking  care- 
fulh',  however,  Goring  discovered  at  last  a  latch  in  the 
inner  wall.  Lifting  it  he  found  himself  in  a  narrow 
shed,  into  which  light  made  its  way  feebly  through  the 
holes  in  the  roof.  Here  as  his  eyes  grew  accustomed 
to  the  darkness,  he  perceived  a  frame  of  boards 
nailed  together  and  strewed  with  fern.  This  had  been 
the  old  man's  sleeping  place,  and  there  was  a  pallet 
in  a  corner  for  the  girl  who  had  come  to  him  in  the 
morning.  But  the  bed  was  empty,  the  occupant  of  it 
was  gone.  Everything  was  gone.  For  any  sign  that 
could  be  traced,  no  human  creature  need  have  been 
near  the  place  for  days  or  weeks.  Part  of  what  he 
saw  was  easily  explained  ;  the  small  comforts,  the 
bare  necessaries  of  life,  had  been  seized  for  the 
rent.  But  where  was  the  old  man  himself,  and 
where  were  those  who  had  brought  him  help  ?  The 
utter  desolation  was  more  startling  to  him  than  if 
he  had  found  himself  in  a  nest  of  Rapparees  ;  for 
all  that  he  could  tell  they  might  be  hidden  under 
the  river  banks,  and  might  spring  out  upon  him  at 
any  moment. 

The  pointer,  however,  who  would  scent  the 
presence  of  man  more  easily  than  he  could  do,  gave 
no  sign,  but  looked  composedly  in  his  master's  face. 
B)'  degrees  he  assured   himself  that  he  and  his  dog 


96  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

were  the  only  living  creatures  on  the  spot.  And  he 
presently  found  a  partial  clue  to  the  mystery.  There 
was  a  post  on  the  shore  with  a  chain,  to  which  a  boat 
had  been  attached.  The  chain  was  loose,  the  boat 
was  gone,  and  there  was  the  mark  of  the  keel  on  the 
shingle  where  it  had  been  run  down  into  the  water. 
The  party  who  had  brought  the  food  had  afterwards 
carried  the  old  Moriarty  down  the  lake,  perhaps  to  be 
out  of  the  way  when  enquiry  came  to  be  made  into 
the  murder.     What  was  he  to  do  now  ? 

The  horse  track  from  Dunboy  by  which  the  girl 
would  be  coming  with  his  servant  followed  the  shore 
to  the  bottom  of  the  Lough.  There  bending  to  the 
left  it  had  been  carried  up  another  valley,  and  by 
a  lower  pass  through  the  mountains.  He  thought  at 
first  that  he  had  better  return  this  way  and  meet  them. 
But  he  reflected  that  the  persons  from  whom  the 
stranger  had  warned  him  that  he  might  be  in  danger 
had  gone  in  that  direction.  They  would  be  on  the 
look-out  for  the  girl,  for  they  knew  where  she  had 
been,  and  he  could  be  satisfied  that  she  would  be 
taken  care  of  His  groom  would  be  safe  enough,  for 
the  Irish  did  not  commit  gratuitous  crimes,  and  thc}- 
could  gain  nothing  by  injuring  a  servant.  He  himself 
might  be  throwing  his  life  away  to  no  purpose.  So 
he  concluded  that  his  wisest  course  would  be  to  go 
back  by  the  way  that  he  had  come,  and  to  send  a 
party  as  speedily  as  was  possible  to  bring  down  the 
body  from  the  cairn. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  97 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

A  YEAR  had  passed  over  the  settlement  at  Dun- 
boy  since  the  incident  described  in  the  last  chapter, 
a  year  which  had  brought  with  it  the  ordinary  vicissi- 
tudes of  good  and  evil,  but  had  made  no  distinct 
alteration  in  Colonel  Goring's  purposes  or  pro«6pects. 
The  event  to  which  he  looked  forward  as  so  im- 
portant to  his  complete  success  had  not  yet  taken 
place.  Macfinnan  Dhu's  constitution  continued  to 
bear  up  against  age  and  fever,  and  whiskey,  and  Lord 
Shelbourne's  intended  reforms  at  Kilmakilloge  were 
not  to  be  commenced  till  he  was  gone.  The  body  of 
the  man  who  had  been  murdered  had  been  brought 
down  from  the  mountain.  An  inquest  had  been  held 
upon  it,  but  no  evidence  could  be  had  to  identify  the 
perpetrators,  and  the  verdict  found  was  against  persons 
unknown.  The  old  Moriarty  had  reappeared  after  a 
time  at  his  cabin,  and  with  signs  of  improved  circum- 
stances. Cows  again  browsed  upon  his  meadows 
and  sheep  upon  the  hills.  The  house  itself  was 
enlarged  and  comfortably  furnished.  But  the 
suspicions  which  might  have  attached  to  his  pros- 
perity as  connected  in  some  way  with  the  crime  were 
dispelled,  first  by  the  Priest  who  had  visited  him,  and 
swore  that  at  the  time  of  the  murder  he  was  unconscious 
and  was  then  supposed  to  be  dying ;  and  secondly, 
by  the  accidental  discovery  that  his  re-establishment 
on  his  farm  under  so  much  happier  conditions  was  due 
to  no  one  but  to  Colonel  Goring  himself,  who  had 
purchased  the  lease  of  Glenbeg  and  bought  out  the 

7 


98  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

middlemen,  and  had  taken  the  poor  old  man  for  his 
own  immediate  tenant. 

Gradually  the  nine  days'  wonder  was  forgotten,  and 
things  fell  back  into  their  old  groove.  Agrarian 
crimes  were  too  common  in  Ireland  to  produce  any 
lasting  impression.  The  story  generally  believed  was 
that  the  murder  had  been  committed  b\'  the  crew  of 
some  smuggling  vessel  which  had  afterwards  vanished 
off  the  coast.  That  this  was  the  true  account  of  it 
was  Goring's  own  opinion.  Moriarty  could  have  told 
something  had  he  chosen,  but  he  pleaded  absolute 
ignorance.  He  professed  to  have  been  too  ill  to  have 
discovered  \\\\o  the  persons  were  who  had  brought 
him  food  and  carried  him  down  the  lake.  He  could 
not  even  explain  where  he  had  been  in  the  interval 
before  he  reappeared  in  the  Glen.  Goring  under- 
stood his  silence  and  did  not  press  him.  The  moun- 
tain tenants  had  been  barbarously  oppressed.  His 
aim  was  rather  to  win  their  confidence  than  act  upon 
their  fears.  He  had  broken  down  the  system  under 
which  they  suffered  on  his  own  property.  He  bought 
in  the  leases  of  the  farms  on  his  border,  Moriarty's 
among  the  rest  ;  he  tried  to  attach  them  to  himself  by 
personal  attention  and  kindness,  and  he  hoped  that 
he  was  not  failing  altogether,  and  that,  if  fail  he  did, 
it  was  not  due  to  any  fault  of  his  own. 

Meantime  his  own  settlement  continued  to  prosper. 
The  yield  of  the  fishery  was  abundant.  The  fish 
houses  on  the  Island  were  crowded  with  herring 
barrels,  and  the  dried  cod  and  ling  stood  in  stacks 
upon  the  shore  till  French  and  English  dealers  came 
in  for  them.  The  mines  pro\'ed  richer  and  richer  as 
fresh  lodes  were  opened.  They  furnished  employ- 
ment to  large  numbers  of  the  native  Irish,  and  a   kind 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  99 

of  intercourse  was  still  maintained,  not  wholly  un- 
friendly, between  the  old  inhabitants  and  the  new.  The 
young  English  lads  were  not  insensible  to  the  charms 
of  the  mountain  girls,  and  the  girls  if  left  to  them- 
selves might  have  not  been  entirely  irresponsive. 
But  prejudices  and  circumstances  were  too  strong  for 
superficial  inclinations.  As  the  variously  coloured 
waters  of  two  rivers  when  they  meet  in  a  single  channel 
flow  on  side  by  side  before  they  will  consent  to  mix,  the 
difference  in  race,  in  character  and  in  creed,  continued 
to  keep  apart  the  Cornish  Calvinist  and  the  Catholic 
of  Cork  and  Kerry.  They  were  independent  of 
each  other,  for  they  had  each  their  separate  farms. 
The  contraband  trade  was  a  fatal  and  constant 
occasion  of  anger  among  the  Irish.  The  English 
looked  down  on  them  as  half-savages,  and  could  not 
be  prevented  from  showing  it  ;  and  thus  the  intimacy 
did  not  extend  beyond  the  work  which  they  did 
in    common. 

Goring  was  not  entirely  sorry.  Too  close  a  union 
with  the  Irish  had  produced  degeneracy  both  of 
character  and  creed  in  all  the  settlements  of  English 
which  had  been  made  in  previous  centuries.  It  was 
on  this  rock  more  than  any  other  that  they  had  split, 
and  he  was  the  more  anxious  on  this  point  from  the 
unexpected  difficulties  which  he  found  in  obtaining  a 
license  for  his  chapel.  The  magistrates  of  the  county, 
when  he  applied  to  them  under  the  statute,  gave  him 
to  understand,  without  directly  refusing,  that  they 
would  prefer  that  he  should  make  his  application  to 
the  Bishop  ;  the  Bishop  referred  him  to  the  Primate  ; 
he  could  get  no  reply  either  positive  or  negative ; 
and  scornful  and  indignant  as  he  might  feel,  his 
position  became  more  and  more  embarrassing  as  time 


loo  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


went  on,  for  he  knew  that  half  the  famihes,  and  those 
the  best  amoni;"  them,  whom  he  had  introduced 
would  leave  him  if  deprived  of  their  rights  of 
conscience. 

There  was  the  further  embarrassment  that  the 
Statute  of  Toleration  itself  applied  only  to  the  right 
of  meeting  for  worship.  The  children  could  only  be 
baptized,  the  dead  could  only  be  buried,  the  young 
people  married  and  the  boys  and  girls  taught  reading 
and  writing,  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Establishment. 
Some  of  these  inconveniences  he  had  foreseen,  and 
had  intended  all  along,  when  he  had  leisure,  either 
.to  restore  a  ruined  church  at  Adrigoole,  or  to  build 
another  at  Glengariff.  There  being  a  few  Protestant 
families  left  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Glengariff,  he 
decided  on  the  latter.  Having  ample  funds  at  his 
disposition,  he  built  a  small  stone  church  at  his  own 
expense.  He  provided  an  endowment  for  a  Minister, 
and  having  given  so  satisfactory  an  evidence  to  the 
Bishop  of  his  own  loyalty  to  the  Church,  he  supposed 
that  the  objection  would  be  withdrawn  to  the 
registration  of  his  Calvinist  meeting  house.  He 
found  himself  mistaken.  The  Bishop  acknowledged 
his  liberality  with  stinted  praise.  He  consented  to 
consecrate  the  church  at  Glengariff,  on  condition  that 
he  might  himself  have  the  nomination  of  the  in- 
cumbent. But  he  said  that  since  there  was  now  a 
Church  service  within  fifteen  miles  of  Dunboy,  the 
excuse  for  the  demand  for  a  Nonconformist  place 
of  worship  no  longer  existed. 

Colonel  Goring  kept  his  temper,  though  with 
difficulty.  He  himself,  with  his  family,  usualh' 
attended  the  Church  service,  with  a  small  number 
of  his  people  who  were  willing  to    accompan\'  him. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF   DUNBOY.  loi 


For  the  rest,  he  let  things  continue  as  they  were  on 
his  own  responsibility,  till  he  could  have  a  personal 
explanation  with  the  Primate,  and  ascertain  how  far 
a  Dissenting  congregation  could  be  legally  deprived  of 
the  benefit  of  the  Act.  Meanwhile  the  neighbourhood 
of  an  ordained  clcrg\'man  made  the  situation  in  other 
respects  more  easy,  and  enabled  him  to  cover  under 
the  clergyman's  name  the  irregularity  of  his  school. 

But  the  unrest  which  always  prevailed  in 
the  South  of  Ireland  when  there  was  a  prospect  of 
a  French  landing,  was  growing  with  alarming 
intensity.  Peace  was  not  yet  avowedly  broken  ;  but 
the  French  and  English  were  fighting  in  India  and 
America,  and  the  signs  of  the  approaching  war  were 
visible  on  all  sides.  Privateers  were  known  to  be 
fitting  out  at  Nantes  and  Rochelle,  expecting  their 
letters  of  marque.  Some  were  said  to  be  at  their  work 
already,  knowing  that  when  war  broke  out  their 
doings  would  not  be  closely  looked  into.  Vicious- 
looking  craft,  of  various  sizes,  had  been  seen  hovering 
about  the  Irish  coast  under  P'rench  colours,  anywhere 
between  Cape  Clear  and  the  mouth  of  the  Shannon. 
The  Bantry  smugglers  had  multiplied  so  fast,  that, 
without  larger  support  than  the  Government  allowed 
him,  he  found  he  would  soon  be  unable  to  hold  them 
in  check.  He  had  some  information  that  muskets 
and  powder  had  been  landed  in  large  quantities  in 
Roaring  Water  Bay,  and  while  he  was  straining  his 
utmost  to  protect  the  coast,  he  was  assailed  by  a 
hundred  petty  acts  of  persecution,  each  of  which,  if 
taken  singly,  might  ha\e  seemed  an  accident,  but 
coming  close  together  showed  that  a  combined 
attempt  was  being  made  to  drive  him  out  of  the 
countr)\     He  had   relieved  the  poorer  tenants  of  the 


I02  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


neighbourhood  by  buying  in  the  ground  leases  ;  he 
provoked  the  resentment  of  the  petty  t}'rants  of  the 
Baronies  ;  and  claims  of  all  sorts  and  kinds  upon  his 
own  property  were  started  out  of  the  ground  under 
his  feet.  Pretensions  dating  from  the  last  century, 
under  the  Articles  of  Limerick  and  Galway,  leases 
professing  to  have  been  granted  by  the  Annesleys, 
complications  introduced  by  contradictory  legislation 
into  Irish  tenures,  rights  of  which  he  had  never 
heard,  and  which  those  who  had  advanced  them  had 
never  thought  of  till  Goring  with  his  philanthropies 
and  his  activities  was  found  a  nuisance.  All  these 
were  discovered,  revived  and  brought  out  to  annoy 
him.  A  claimant  was  even  found  for  his  own 
house  at  Dunboy,  under  some  antiquated  deed.  He 
was  entangled  in  a  lab\Tinth  of  law-suits,  each  of 
which  when  it  came  on  for  hearing  was  found  too 
flimsy  to  be  sustained.  But  a  worrying  and  ex- 
asperating correspondence  with  solicitors  was  no 
small  addition  to  his  other  anxieties.  Again  and 
again  he  represented  his  situation  to  the  Government 
in  Dublin.  He  described  the  alarming  revival  of  the 
contraband  trade,  the  apathy  if  not  the  enmity  of 
the  gentry  of  the  country  to  himself,  and  the  organised 
persecution  of  which  he  was  made  the  object.  The 
hostility  to  him  was  due  entirely  to  his  resolution  to 
do  his  duty  ;  and  he  said  plainly  that  without  assist- 
ance, or  at  least  without  some  open  countenance  from 
the  Castle  authorities,  it  would  be  impossible  for  him 
to  hold  his  ground. 

The  ruling  authorities  alternated  between  panic 
and  deliberate  inaction.  When  frightened  they 
were  precipitate  and  violent.  When  the  alarm 
passed    off,    or    before    it  arose,  they   refused   to  be 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  103' 


moved.  The  contraband  trade  they  were  content 
to  let  alone.  As  to  war,  it  had  not  yet  come, 
perhaps  it  would  not  come,  and  there  was  no 
need  to  be  in  a  hurry.  Colonel  Goring's  letters 
received  no  official  answer.  As  he  persevered  in 
writing,  it  was  intimated  to  him  indirectly  that  the 
Customs  duties  formed  a  part  of  the  hereditary 
revenues  of  the  Crown.  The  Government  in  London, 
finding  Irish  constitutional  liberty  beginning  to  be 
troublesome,  were  contemplating  the  abolition  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  and  the  carrying  on  the  adminis- 
tration with  the  hereditary  revenues  alone.  Patriotic 
Irishmen,  therefore,  ought  not  to  wish  that  revenue  to 
be  too  completely  collected. 

Whatever  might  be  the  cause  of  the  apathy.  Colonel 
Goring  had  to  be  convinced  that  he  had  nothing  to 
look  for  from  the  Powers  at  the  Castle,  beyond  his 
half-dozen  Coastguard  men.  The  one  hope  which 
burnt  bright  in  him  was  in  his  expected  help  from 
Lord  Shelbourne,  and  here,  too,  it  was  not  impossible 
that  he  might  again  be  disappointed. 

In  spite  of  the  rude  treatment  of  the  wine  basket, 
the  Earl  could  not  be  brought  to  disturb  the  last 
years  of  the  old  Chief  at  Derreen.  No  change 
was  to  be  made  till  Macfinnan  Dhu  had  been 
gathered  to  his  fathers.  The  Earl  himself  was 
far  advanced  in  years.  His  son,  who  was  to  have 
succeeded  him,  and  resembled  his  grandfather.  Sir 
William,  had  died  suddenly.  The  heir  to  the  great 
Shelbourne  estates  was  now  his  sister's  son.  Lord 
Fitzmaurice,  a  scion  of  the  old  Geraldines,  who  was 
suspected  of  entertaining  no  favourable  disposition 
towards  aggressive  Protestant  colonies,  and,  like  the 
generality  of  the   Jacobite    Anglo- Irish   gentry,    pre- 


I04  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY 


ferred  a  Papist  to  a  Calvinistic  Republican.  It  was 
said  that  while  Fitzmaurice  was  in  command  at  Ross 
Castle,  the  duty  paid  on  the  claret  and  brandy  con- 
sumed in  Killarney  had  been  \-ery  inconsiderable.  It 
is  a  sin  to  wish  any  man  out  of  the  world,  but  when 
two  persons  are  running  in  to  the  goal,  side  by  side,  and 
will  both  reach  it  any  way,  the  most  innocent  observer 
may  have  his  favourite  for  the  race  without  serious 
offence.  Colonel  Goring  would  have  been  more  than 
mortal  if  he  had  not  desired  that  Macfinnan  should 
be  the  first  to  go,  and  leave  the  Earl  time  to  set  his 
plans  in  motion.  For  once  fortune  seemed  to  stand 
his  friend.  After  being  restored  to  vigour  by  his 
wrath,  Macfinnan  went  back  to  the  habits  out  of 
which  his  illness  had  imperfectly  frightened  him. 
After  draining  a  pint  of  whiskey  at  a  draught,  in  a 
bet  with  a  neighbouring  squireen,  he  was  carried  help- 
less to  bed.  In  his  life  he  had  been  an  unwilling 
Protestant,  to  qualify  himself  to  hold  the  lease  of 
Tuosist.  The  priest,  when  he  was  in  articulo  mortis, 
set  his  conscience  straight  for  him.  His  sin  had  been 
inconsiderable,  for  in  his  whole  life  he  had  never  set 
foot  inside  a  Protestant  church.  His  spiritual  affairs 
having  been  arranged,  he  called  his  son  Mick  to  his 
bed-side,  cautioned  him  to  stand  by  the  old  place 
through  good  and  evil,  and  drink  and  fight  when 
opportunity  offered,  as  a  gentleman  should  do,  and  so 
made  a  good  end,  after  the  manner  of  his  fathers.  A 
letter  from  the  agent  at  Kenmare  brought  the  news 
to  Dunboy.  The  Earl's  instructions  to  him,  he  said, 
had  been  to  lose  no  time  in  entering  upon  pos.session. 
He  proposed  to  go  in  person  to  Derreen,  to  show 
proper  consideration  for  the  family  who  were  now  to 
be  removed.      Several  g-entlemen  of  distinction  would 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  105 


accompany  him,  at  the  Earl's  desire,  to  give  im- 
portance to  his  action,  and  he  trusted  that  Colonel 
Goring  himself  would  join  their  party,  since  he  was 
likely  to  be  so  much  interested  in  the  future  manage- 
ment of  the  property.  The  agent  had  decided,  after 
some  uncertainty,  that  the  day  of  the  funeral  would,  on 
the  whole,  be  the  fittest  for  their  visit.  It  would  be  a 
sign  of  respect  which  was  demanded  by  the  custom  of 
the  country,  and  an  evidence  of  an  intention  to  deal 
generously  in  the  change  which  was  to  be  made. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

The  death  of  Macfinnan  Dhu  made  a  sensation 
throughout  Kerry.  The  O'Sullivans  of  Dun- 
kerron,  the  chief  branch  of  the  old  race,  had 
been  long  gone.  Their  castle  was  in  ruins.  The 
water-spirits  who  had  wailed  in  the  moonlight 
upon  the  shore  on  the  death  of  each  of  its  inmates, 
had  sung  their  last  dirge  when  Elizabeth  was 
Queen  of  England,  and  they  had  been  seen  or  heard 
no  more.  Morty  Oge,  the  next  in  rank  of  the  famil}-, 
had  carried  his  sword  into  the  service  of  the  foreigner, 
and  the  Lord  of  Derreen  was  the  last  of  their  chiefs 
who  had  resided  on  the  scene  of  their  old  dominion. 
The  Earl  of  Shelbourne's  intentions  were  no  secret,  and 
it  seemed  as  if  the  curtain  was  about  to  fall  over  one 
more  of  the  ancient  Irish  Septs.  Under  any  circum- 
stances the  last  honours  would  have  been  paid  punc- 
tiliously to  a  man  who  had  been  personally  popular, 
and  who  had  filled  so  conspicuous  a  place.  The 
revolution  known  to  be  contemplated  had  on  this 
occasion  called  out  a  peculiar  feeling.  The  smaller 
squires,    the    sons    or    brothers    of     some     of     the 


io6  THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  ROY. 


more  considerable  families  in  the  country,  the 
multitudes  of  Sullivans,  for  half  the  peasantry  bore 
the  name,  and  all  the  Catholic  population  of  the 
adjoining  baronies  on  both  sides  of  the  Kenmare 
River,  decided  to  be  present  at  the  funeral,  both  out  of 
natural  respect  and  to  show  the  dissatisfaction  and 
jealousy  with  which  they  regarded  the  threatened 
return  among  them  of  English  strangers. 

The  nature  of  the  Irish  is  a  singular  compound  of 
tenderness  and  levity.  In  their  popular  melodies 
there  is  often  a  pathos  too  deep  for  words, 
which  can  only  be  expressed  in  music ;  the 
agony  is  drawn  out  as  if  the  long  sorrow  of 
the  Irish  nation  were  all  gathered  into  the  notes 
which  thrill  upon  the  harp-strings.  Then  suddenly, 
as  with  a  bound,  the  air  starts  off  into  motiveless 
hysterical  merriment,  and  dies  away  into  idle  laughter. 
The  same  combination  can  be  traced  in  the  conduct 
of  their  lives,  and  displays  itself  most  conspicuously 
of  all  when  they  lay  their  dead  in  the  earth.  Births 
and  marriages  are  allowed  to  pass  comparatively  un- 
noticed. A  "  burying "  is  at  once  a  dirge  and  a 
festival — an  epitome  of  the  national  character.  Mac- 
finnan  Dhu  was  waked  with  the  usual  honours.  The 
buckeens  who  had  been  his  boon  companions  sate  the 
night  through  drinking  whiskey  in  the  hall  at  Derreen, 
the  coffin  standing  on  trestles  in  the  middle  of  them, 
with  the  candles  burning  round  it.  The  blind  piper 
in  a  corner  played  the  keen  of  the  O'Sullivans,  and 
those  who  were  not  too  drunk  to  listen  professed  to 
have  heard  the  Banshee  wail  outside  the  window. 

In  the  morning — it  was  again  a  bright  September 
day — the  grounds  were  early  thronged  with  thousands 
of  people  who  had  gathered  there  by  land  and  water. 


THE   TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  107 

From  Berehaven  by  the  pass  over  the  mountains, 
from  Glengariff  and  Bantry,  from  Sneem,  across  the 
bay,  and  even  from  Killarney  and  Tralee,  old  and 
young  had  come  together  for  a  hoHday,  and  for  a 
patriotic  demonstration.  They  had  brought  their 
food  with  them  to  spare  the  purse  of  the  injured  heir, 
and  had  distributed  themselves  in  picturesque  groups 
over  the  lawn  and  under  the  trees  in  the  orchard. 
Stern  old  women,  with  features  trenched  deep  with 
furrows  and  wrinkles,  sat  on  their  haunches  on  the 
rock  where  the  dead  man  had  broken  the  Saxon's 
wine  bottles,  smoking  their  short  pipes,  and  mum- 
bling over  again  the  curses  which  he  had  thundered 
at  him.  The  scarlet  cloaks  of  the  younger  ones  shone 
brilliantly  against  the  dark  foliage  of  the  oak  wood 
from  which  the  place  took  its  name.  The  men  lounged 
about,  some  smartly  dressed,  with  riding  whips  in 
their  hands,  others  in  the  best  rags  they  had,  in 
respect  of  his  honour's  glory.  Others  there  were  who 
seemed  to  have  come  in  some  vessel  from  abroad,  and 
not  to  belong  to  the  neighbourhood,  seamen  tanned 
by  southern  suns,  officers  in  the  undress  uniform  of 
the  Irish  Brigade  ;  or  dubious-looking  gentlemen  with 
Spanish  sombreros,  slashed  velvet  jackets,  and  pistols 
and  stilettoes  at  their  belts.  High  or  low,  native  or 
foreign,  sailors,  soldiers,  or  civilians,  they  had  collected 
all  on  the  same  errand,  and  were  waiting  for  the 
formation  of  the  funeral  procession. 

The  old  church  of  Kilmakilloge — church  of  the 
lesser  St.  Michael — where  the  younger  branch  of  the 
O'Sullivans  had  been  buried  since  the  time  of  the 
Danes,  stood  on  a  grassy  hill  above  the  harbour,  a 
mile  and  a  half  distant  from  the  house.  Who  the 
lesser  St.  Michael  was,  how  he  differed  from  the  Arch- 


lo8  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


angel,  and  what  brought  him  to  Ireland,  local  Irish 
tradition,  for  once  modest,  does  not  pretend  to  know. 
The  harbour  which  bears  his  name  is  an  inlet,  two  or 
three  miles  deep,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Kenmare 
River.  It  is  shaped  something  like  a  starfish,  with 
open  water  in  the  centre,  and  long  arms  piercing  into 
the  land  all  round,  between  which  are  projecting 
ridges  of  rock,  wood,  and  meadow.  It  is  surrounded 
by  high  mountains.  At  the  furthest  extremity  a  deep 
dark  valley  leads  up  into  the  hollow  of  Glanmore, 
and  is  closed  in  at  the  back  by  the  high  crests,  the 
other  sides  of  which  overhang  Bantry  Ba}*.  A  con- 
siderable river  falls  into  the  harbour  out  of  the.se 
mountains,  and  another  and  a  smaller  one  descends 
from  the  eastern  range  towards  Glenatrasna  and 
Glengariff  The  peninsula  of  Derreen,  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  O'Sullivans  had  their  dwelling,  is  skirted 
on  one  side  by  this  second  stream,  on  the  other  b\-  a 
long,  deep,  creek  of  salt  water,  and  it  is  itself  thickh- 
covered  b\-  a  wood  of  stunted  oak  trees,  yews  and 
hollies. 

Here  from  immemorial  time,  from  the  days  when 
Ireland  was  the  home  of  the  Saints,  the  little  St. 
Michael  had  been  the  spiritual  chief  and  ruler,  having 
inherited  his  domain,  perhaps,  from  some  earlier 
heathen  Divinity,  for  the  land  all  round  the  inlet  had 
been  evidently  the  home  of  human  beings  in  an  age 
far  behind  the  conjectures  of  histor\-.  Tall  stone 
pillars  scattered  freely  along  its  shores,  mark  the 
spots  where  chiefs  or  heroes  lie  buried.  In  the  dry 
banks  formed  in  the  Ice  ages  by  moraines,  are  a  great 
number  of  the  structures  called  Picts'  houses,  groups 
of  underground  cells  or  chambers  hollowed  out  of  the 
soil  and  joined   together  b)'    narrow   creeping  holes. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  109 


What  these  "  houses  "  were,  or  to  what  purpose  they 
were  applied,  no  one  now  can  say,  and  they  are  left 
undisturbed  to  the  "  good  people  ; "  but  human  crea- 
tures, and  a  good  many  of  them,  were  present  at  their 
construction,  and  there  are  other  signs,  immediately 
round,  of  a  considerable  population.  Granite  circles, 
each  like  a  miniature  Stonehenge,  stand  on  the  hill- 
sides— temples,  monuments,  burying-places,  Courts 
of  Justice,  in  the  open  air,  like  the  Doomsters'  Court 
in  the  Isle  of  Man— they  may  have  been  any  one  of 
these,  and  the  antiquarian  may  guess  at  his  pleasure  ; 
but  they  are  the  footprints  of  prehistoric  man. 

St.  Michael  must  have  been  in  possession  of  his 
Green  Hill  before  the  English  Conquest,  for  no  one 
knows  when  he  came  into  it,  and  if  so  considerable  a 
Saint  had  made  his  appearance  later  than  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Second,  his  arrival  on  the  scene  would 
certainly  have  been  heard  of.  It  was  a  very  long 
time  ago,  therefore,  that  he  erected  the  small  wind- 
beaten  building  where,  for  century  after  century,  the 
O'SuUivans  of  the  Glen  had  heard  mass  while  they 
lived  and  were  gathered  to  their  fathers  when  they 
died.  The  Reformation  aboli.shed  the  mass,  but  pro- 
vided nothing  in  the  place  of  it.  The  windows  fell  in, 
and  the  doors  fell  off,  and  for  a  hundred  years  no 
sound  was  heard  within  the  narrow  aisle  but  the 
hooting  of  owls,  the  cry  of  the  passing  curlew,  and 
the  moaning  of  the  storm.  Then  came  Sir  William 
Petty's  people,  who  were  spiritually-minded.  They 
brought  with  them  a  Puritan  minister.  The\'  repaired 
the  roof,  whitewashed  the  walls,  and  \\Tote  texts  upon 
them,  turned  the  owls  out,  and  made  a  decent  meeting- 
house. But  the  Bishop  hunted  out  the  minister,  and 
gave  the  advowson  to  a  clergyman,  who,  alread)-  having 


no  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


a  benefice  forty  miles  off  at  Tralee,  could  not  be  at 
Kilmakilloge  at  the  same  time.  The  colony,  being 
unepiscopal  in  their  sentiments,  declined  to  provide  a 
curate,  unless  he  might  be  one  of  themselves.  The 
Catholics  built  a  chapel  of  their  own  ;  the  church 
went  to  wreck  again  ;  but  as  time  and  weather  washed 
away  the  traces  of  heretical  profanation,  the  ruins  and 
the  burying  ground  recovered  their  traditionary 
sanctity. 

A  few  hundred  yards  off  was  a  pond,  to  which  St. 
Michael,  as  a  sign  of  returning  favour,  gave  miraculous 
virtues.  A  floating  island  rose  once  a  year  in  the 
middle  of  it,  and  a  bath  in  the  water,  while  the  island 
was  above  the  surface,  made  the  lame  to  walk  and  the 
blind  to  see.  Analogous  advantages  attached  to  a 
grave  in  the  churchyard  ;  and  so  considerable  were 
these,  that  bodies  would  be  brought  from  the  adjoining 
Baronies  to  be  put  away  there.  The  natives  of  the 
glen,  jealous  of  their  exclusive  rights,  would  resist  by 
force,  and  desperate  battles  were  often  fought  on 
these  occasions.  So  holy  the  spot  was  supposed  to 
be,  and  so  severe  the  competition  for  admission  to  it, 
that  the  space  w^as  fast  filled.  The  peasant  who 
secured  a  grave  there  was  allowed  but  a  few  years  of 
rest  before  he  was  dug  up  to  make  room  for  another. 
The  grass  was  littered  with  the  fragments  of  coffins, 
and  skulls  were  piled  in  heaps  against  the  chancel 
walls.  The  vault  of  the  O'Sullivans  alone  remained 
sacred  from  disturbance,  and  was  guarded  partly  by  a 
railing  and  partly  by  the  respect  of  the  population. 

Hither  on  this  September  morning  were  to  be 
borne  the  remains  of  the  chief  who  had  just  departed. 
The  coffin,  with  his  arms  in  silver  upon  the  lid,  was 
brought  out  and  laid  in  a  cart.     The  gentlemen,  who 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  ni 

had  wound  up  their  night  watch  with  an  ample  break- 
fast, mounted  their  horses  in  the  courtyard,  and  talked 
anxiously  and  earnestly  as  they  rode  round  to  take 
their  places  behind  it. 

"  So  here,"  said  the  O'Donoghoe  of  Glenflesk,  "  we 
are  to  see  the  last  of  the  Sullivans.  They  have  been 
a  fine  famil)-,  and  there  is  a  brave  gathering  anyway 
of  them  that  would  be  present  at  the  end.  'Twas 
said  the  agent  was  coming  himself.  May  the  Devil 
have  the  sowl  of  him  !  " 

"  A  sore  sight  will  the  like  of  him  be  this  day,"  said 
a  young  McSweeney,  "  and  unless  I  brought  a 
regiment  of  red-coats  with  me,  I'd  be  careful,  how 
I  showed  myself  among  the  lads,  till  the  anger  is  out 
of  them.  What  would  he  be  here  at  all  for,  and  he 
to  drive  the  widow  and  the  orphan  from  under  the 
roof  that  sheltered  them  ?  " 

"  What  says  Mr.  Sylvester  to  it  ?  "  the  O'Donoghoe 
said,  turning  to  an  elderly  man,  whose  boots  and 
leggings,  spattered  with  mud,  showed  that  he  had 
ridden  fast  and  far  to  be  in  time  for  the  ceremony. 
"  Will  the  boys  fight,  think  you,  Sylvester  ?  " 

"  Fight  is  it  ?  "  answered  the  person  appealed  to, 
whose  acquaintance  the  reader  has  already  made  at 
Nantes.  "  And  what  would  they  be  fighting  for  ? 
Sure,  the  Earl  is  master,  to  do  as  he  likes,  and  the 
King's  Majesty,  God  bless  him  !  stands  at  the  Earl's 
back  with  the  red-coats  ;  only  they  do  say  a " 

"  What  do  they  say  ?  "  enquired  the  O'Donoghoe, 
to  whom  such  effusive  loyalty  seemed  too  warm  to  be 
entirely  sincere. 

Sylvester  did  not  care  to  finish  his  sentence,  but 
another  gentleman  in  the  party  finished  it  for  him  : 
"  It  was  rumoured  in   Kenmare  last  night,"  he  said, 


112  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

"  that  the  Earl  in  London  was  sinking,  and  that  my 
Lord  Fitzmaurice  would  have  a  word  to  say  before 
this  work  went  foi-ward." 

The  conversation  was  cut  short  by  a  long,  low  cry 
which  arose  in  front  of  the  house,  and  a  summons  of 
the  horsemen  to  their  ranks. 

The  cart  was  already  in  motion,  rounding  the  rock 
before  the  door,  and  two  strings  of  women,  one  on 
either  side  of  it,  were  chanting  the  dirge  for  the  dead, 
their  voices  rising  and  falling  like  the  notes  of  an 
yEolian  harp,  now  hushed  and  low,  now  rushing  up 
the  scale  into  a  scream  of  passionate  despair.  Im- 
mediately behind  the  cart  rode  the  priest  and  the 
young  lad  who  was  so  soon  to  be  disinherited  ;  after 
them  followed  the  mounted  gentry.  In  the  rear,  as 
the  cart  advanced,  the  parti-coloured  crowd  formed 
into  a  line  which  seemed  interminable,  Macfinnan 
Dhu  being  far  on  his  way  to  his  resting-place  before 
the  last  of  the  mourners  was  clear  of  the  grounds. 
The  road,  after  leaving  the  domain,  followed  the 
turns  of  the  shore,  amidst  heather  and  bare  rocks. 
From  the  point  of  a  crag  in  the  wood  behind  the 
house  the  whole  train  could  be  seen  from  end  to  end, 
winding  its  mournful  way,  w^hile  the  cries  of  the 
keeners  became  fainter  in  the  distance,  swaying 
fitfully  on  the  autumn  wind.  A  string  of  boats 
accompanied  the  procession  on  the  water,  while 
others  were  seen  streaming  in  from  the  sea.  A 
large  vessel  of  unusual  rig  and  striking  appearance 
lay  in  a  cove  at  the  harbour  mouth.  She  had  a 
French  flag  flying  half-mast  high,  and  a  galley  and  a 
long-boat  full  of  men  were  observed  to  leave  her  and 
pull  in  to  the  land  under  the  church. 

The  women  ceased  to  wail  when  the  coffiii  reached 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  113 


the  sacred  ground.  The  priest  put  on  his  vestments 
and  chanted  the  office  for  the  dead,  the  multitude 
clustering  silently  under  the  broken  tower  of  the 
desolate  building,  among  the  bones,  buried  and  un- 
buried,  of  vanished  generations  of  men.  One  side  of 
the  iron  rail  which  protected  the  vault  of  the  Derreen 
family  had  been  removed.  The  massive  flagstone  had 
been  lifted  off,  and  in  the  dark  space  below  a  dozen 
coffins  were  seen,  side  by  side,  mouldering  into  dust. 
All  that  remained  of  Macfinnan  Dhu  was  passed 
down  among  that  silent  company.  The  priest 
pronounced  his  last  blessing.  The  crowd  resolved 
itself  into  groups,  which  gathered  over  the  church- 
yard, each  knot  forming  round  some  grassy  mound, 
and  bewailing  afresh  the  kinsman  or  kinswoman  that 
lay  below.  The  gentry  remounted  their  horses  to 
return  to  the  house,  where  there  was  to  be  a  final 
feast  before  they  departed  to  their  homes,  not,  how- 
ever, without  throwing  surprised  and  anxious  glances 
at  the  party  who  had  landed  from  the  vessel,  and  had 
stood  in  a  group  by  themselves  during  the  ceremony. 
These  were  a  dozen  seamen  dressed  like  a  crew  of  a 
man-of-war,  and  two  officers  with  them  in  the  French 
Naval  uniform.  The  elder,  and  evidently  the 
superior,  was  a  short,  alert,  sinewy-looking  man,  in 
the  full  vigour  of  life,  swarthy  and  sun-burnt,  with 
a  foreign  air  and  manner  ;  the  other,  several  years 
younger,  was  tall,  light  and  active,  with  a  bright  Irish 
face,  curling  chestnut  hair,  and  laughing,  humorous 
mouth.  If  his  companion  was  the  commander  of  the 
ship  in  the  harbour,  he  was  himself,  probably,  the 
mate  or  lieutenant.  They  were  known,  apparently, 
to  more  than  one  gentleman  present,  who  lifted  his 
hat   in   recognition,  but    they    seemed    to    avoid    im- 

8 


114  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


mediate  observation.  Dismissing  their  men,  they  left 
the  burying  -  ground  alone,  and  were  presently 
joined  by  Sylvester  O'SuUivan,  who  appeared  to  have 
some  important  communication  to  make  to  them. 
He  had  some  scroll  or  letter  in  his  hand,  the 
contents  of  which  —  for  it  was  sealed — he  was 
describing  to  them.  The  spot  where  they  were 
talking  commanded  a  view  of  the  mountain  pass 
through  which  the  road  from  Ken  mare  descended 
into  the  valley.  Before  they  had  concluded  their 
conversation,  a  party  of  horsemen  were  seen  coming 
down  over  the  brow,  and  picking  their  way  among 
the  rents  and  holes  which  had  been  torn  out  of  the 
track  by  the  watercourses.  Sylvester  touched  the 
elder  officer's  arm,  and  pointed  to  them  with  his 
finger.  The  officer  nodded,  and  gave  a  brief  direction 
to  his  companion,  who  sprang  like  a  greyhound  over 
the  wall  by  which  they  were  standing,  and  bounded 
down  the  grassy  slope  which  led  to  the  shore. 


CHAPTER     X. 

The  riders  who  had  been  seen  descending  the 
mountain  road  into  the  Valley  of  Kilmakilloge  had 
reached  the  level  ground  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill 
before  they  perceived  the  vastness  of  the  concourse 
which  the  funeral  had  brought  together.  The  agent 
had  anticipated  that  the  assembly  would  be  large. 
Macfinnan  Dhu's  personal  friends  would  be  there,  and 
the  inferior  gentry  of  the  county  might,  perhaps,  wish 
to  show  respect  to  his  memory.  Among  many  of  these 
the  old  chief  had  not  been  particularly  popular.  In  his 
younger  days  he  had  been  a  fire-eater,  and  had  been 
in  many  a  quarrel  which  had  left  a  feud  behind  it. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  115 


Belonging,  as  he  did,  to  the  old  blood,  Macfinnan  had 
held  in  small  respect  the  Protestant  adventurers  who 
had  passed  into  occupation  of  the  land.     His  relations 
with  most  of  them  had  been  cool,  and  with  some  had 
been    unfriendly.     But   all    scores   were    cleared    by 
death ;  and  the  agent  hoped  that  he  might  find  a  good 
many  of  them  present,  to  whom  he  would  have  an 
opportunity  of  explaining  publicly  Lord  Shelbourne's 
intentions.      Most  of  these  persons  had   found  their 
account   in  the  disordered  state  of  society,  and  were 
known  to  regard  with  suspicion  and  dislike  the  intro- 
duction    among     them    of  organised  industry.      He 
meant  to  take  the  occasion  to  impress  upon  them  the 
precariousness    of  their   own    situation.     They    held 
their  properties  only  as  representatives  of  the  Enghsh 
conquest.      They  were   surrounded   by   a   population 
who,  however  humble  they  might  affect  to   be,    re- 
garded them  as  robbers  and  intruders,  and   were  on 
the  watch  always  for  an  opportunity  of  destroying 
them.     They  must  be  aware  of  the  growing  ferment 
in  the  general  mind,  of  the  presence  of  French  agents 
among  them  encouraging  the  discontented  masses  to 
look  for  help  from  abroad,  and  of  the  probability,  as  the 
war  was  now  breaking  out,  that  any  day  there  might 
be  an  invasion  in  earnest.    There  was  no  police.    The 
military  force  in  the  country  w^as  limited,  and  could 
not  be  everywhere.     In  the  event  of  an   insurrection 
they  would   be  themselves  the  first  victims,  and  he 
meant   to   make   them    see   that    the   presence  of  a 
thriving  Protestant  settlement  at  the  most   exposed 
and    dangerous   point  upon   the  coast  might  be  the 
surest  safeguard  to  the  whole  of  them. 

Between  the  aristocracy  of  the   Irish  counties   and 
the    smaller   landholders  there  was   not  much  inter- 


Ii6  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY 


course.  The  members  of  the  upper  famiHes,  even  when 
generally  resident,  were  much  in  English  society,  were 
often  in  London  and  on  the  Continent,  were  persons 
of  taste  and  refinement.  The  manners  of  the  buckcens, 
the  middlemen,  the  long  leaseholders,  and  the  smaller 
freeholders  were  not  agreeable  to  them,  and  the  two 
classes  kept  very  much  apart.  Several  of  these 
gentlemen,  however,  who  were  aware  of  the  state  of 
the  country,  had  consented  to  accompany  and  support 
the  agent  on  this  present  occasion.  He  anticipated 
that  with  their  assistance  he  would  be  able  to  produce 
a  salutary  effect  on  the  assembly  whom  he  would  find 
collected,  and  that  many  or  most  of  them  might  be 
brought  to  look  with  favour  on  the  intended  changes. 

These  expectations  were  not  encouraged  by  the 
aspect  of  the  harbour  and  the  valley.  Irish  na- 
tionalism was  evidently  represented  there  in  extra- 
ordinary force.  There  had  been  no  design  to  remove 
Macfinnan's  Dhu's  household  till  provision  could  be 
made  for  them  elsewhere  ;  but  formal  possession  was 
to  be  taken  of  the  premises,  and  half-a-dozen  men 
had  been  sent  down  by  water  from  Kenmare  for  the 
purpose,  who  were  to  meet  the  agent  on  his  arrival. 
It  seemed  doubtful  whether,  coming  on  such  an  errand, 
these  persons  could  venture  to  approach  the  house  in 
the  face  of  such  a  display. 

The  agent's  own  party  consisted  of  about  twenty 
horsemen.  There  was  a  young  Herbert  from 
Killarney,  a  Mr.  Denny  from  Tralee,  a  Blenner- 
hassett,  a  son  of  Sir  Maurice  Crosbie,  an  Orton,  and 
Colonel  Goring,  who  had  joined  them  at  Kenmare. 
They  wore  their  swords.  Goring  only  excepted, 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  and  each  had  a 
couple  of  servants   behind   him   with  pistols  at   their 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  117 


holsters  and  muskctoons  slung  at  their  backs. 
Colonel  Goring  was  unattended  and  unarmed.  His 
life  had  been  often  threatened — more  than  once  he 
had  been  shot  at,  but  he  usually  went  about  his 
business  in  the  wildest  parts  of  the  country  with  no 
more  defence  than  a  walking  stick.  To  carry  pistols, 
he  said,  was  to  be  tempted  to  use  them,  and  might 
rather  increase  than  diminish  any  danger  that  there 
was.  He  was  tranquilly  certain  that  he  could  not  be 
killed  as  long  as  there  was  work  for  him  to  do,  and 
his  contempt  of  precaution  served,  among  so  im- 
pressible a  race  as  the  Southern  Irish,  as  better 
protection  than  a  guard  of  police.  Feared  and  hated 
by  many,  he  was  still  loved  by  some  for  the  help  and 
comfort  which  he  had  brought  to  many  a  miserable 
bedside,  and  even  those  who  would  have  assassinated 
him  regarded  him  as  a  peculiar  person  under  the 
guardianship  of  the  higher  powers. 

The  agent,  as  the  scene  broke  upon  him,  pulled  up 
his  horse  and  looked  anxious  and  uncertain.  Dis- 
agreeable surprise  was  written  on  the  faces  of  the 
rest.  Goring  only  appeared  able  to  enjoy  the 
brightness  of  the  picture,  the  play  of  colours  as  the 
women's  dresses  shone  blue  and  crimson  over  bay  and 
shore,  the  hundred  boats  moving  to  and  fro  about  the 
harbour,  and  the  stir  of  animated  excitement  in  a 
spot  so  silent  and  secluded. 

"  We'll  find  a  warmer  entertainment  at  the  house 
than  we  looked  for.  Colonel,"  said  the  agent  to  him, 
after  a  pause  of  three  or  four  minutes.  "  Rather 
warmth  than  welcome,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  Better, 
perhaps,  if  we  had  waited  for  another  day.  I  am  not 
sure  but  what  we  should  turn  back.  It  is  never  wise 
to  disturb  a  hornet's  nest,  and  it  is  my  belief  that  is 


ii8  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

what  we  should  be  doing  if  we  went  on.  My  lord 
will  not  be  pleased  if  he  hears  that  there  has  been 
trouble." 

"  Turn  back  !  "  said  Gordon.  "  Why,  sir,  they  have 
seen  you  coming,  and  all  the  country  side  will  be  set 
laughing-  at  )'ou.  If  you  want  respect  from  an  Irish- 
man, the  worst  thing  you  can  do  is  to  turn  \'our  back 
upon  him.  Here  is  the  population  of  half-a-dozen 
baronies,  high  and  low,  collected  to  your  hand,  and 
you  can  speak  the  Earl's  meaning  in  the  ears  of  the 
whole  of  them.  He  intends  them  no  harm.  He 
intends  nothing  but  good.  Tell  them  there  is  to  be 
a  new  condition  of  things.  The  misery  they  have 
lived  in  is  to  end.  There  is  to  be  no  more  want,  no 
more  idleness,  no  more  oppression,  and  for  the  future 
peace  and  law  and  order  and  prosperity." 

*'  You  are  a  soldier.  Colonel,  and  you  think  it  is 
enough  to  command  and  to  be  obeyed.  There  are  plenty 
in  Ireland  willing  to  command,  but  devil  a  one  I  know 
of  that  is  willing  to  obey.  You  have  had  experience 
over  there  at  Dunboy,  but  you  don't  understand  the 
country  yet,  and  so  you  will  find  one  of  these  days. 
Law  and  order !  Faith,  we  have  laws  enough  and 
orders  enough  and  small  respect  for  one  or  the  other, 
except  the  fear  is  on  the  people,  and  little  enough 
fear  will  there  be  in  Kilmakilloge  this  afternoon,  with 
the  whiskey  and  all." 

"  There  is  one  law  over  all,"  said  Goring,  "  and 
that  is  God  Almighty's  law.  When  you  find  out 
what  His  will  is,  and  try  to  do  it,  things  will  begin  to 
go  well  with  you,  and  not  till  then,  in  my  judgment." 

"  What  is  the  use  of  your  talking  like  a  preacher. 
Colonel  ?  "  answered  the  agent  querulously.  "  Sure, 
we  all  know  that,  but  the  law  ye   spake  of  is  mighty 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  119 

hard  to  discover.  The  praste  in  the  Chapel  says  it 
is  one  thing,  and  the  parson  in  the  Church  says  it  is 
something  else,  and  it  is  not  clear  to  me  that  either 
the  one  or  the  other  know  what  they  are  talking 
about.  The  Parliament  is  quarest  of  all,  for  they 
make  laws  for  the  honour  of  God,  as  they  call  it,  and 
if  the  magistrate  tries  to  put  the  laws  in  practice,  it 
will  be  the  worse  for  him,  as  yourself  knows.  Colonel, 
if  ye  would  speak  the  truth." 

"  By  Heaven,"  said  Dick  Crosbie,  as  his  companions 
called  him,  "  I  wish  they  would  do  one  thing  or  the 
other — either  execute  the  laws  or  else  repeal  them. 
We  could  sit  on  one  chair,  or  sit  on  the  other,  but  to  sit 
on  both  together  is  an  unasy  arrangement.  Carry 
out  the  Popery  Acts  ;  in  thirty  years  there  will  be 
neither  priest  nor  Papist  in  the  land,  and  the  Pro- 
testants and  the  English  can  do  as  they  will.  Repeal 
the  Acts  and  we'll  be  all  friends  together.  As  it 
stands,  ye  get  all  the  ill-will  for  the  making  such 
laws,  and  ye  lose  the  good  they  might  do  you  if  you 
put  them  in  force." 

"  You  are  wrong  again  there,"  replied  the  agent. 
"  The  Popery  Acts  are  like  the  curb  you  have  got  on 
your  second  bridle  there.  By  the  same  token  it  is 
not  long  ye'd  remain  without  it  on  the  back  of  that 
mare  you  are  riding,  for  a  vicious  beast  she  is,  or  I 
know  nothing  of  horseflesh.  When  the  devil  is  not  in 
her  you  can  ride  her  easy  on  the  snaffle,  and  let  the 
curb  hang  till  ye  want  it.  But  unless  she  knew  it  was 
in  her  mouth,  Dick,  she  would  have  you  off  with  your 
back  on  the  ground  before  ye  had  time  to  ask  where 
ye  were.  Let  the  people  talk  as  they  will,  they 
understand  that  the  Acts  are  in  the  Statute-book,  and 
can  be  found  there  when  we  want  them.     The  priest 


I20  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUX  BOY. 

at  Kenmare  found  the  Abjuration  Oath  stick  in  his 
throat,  and  has  never  been  sworn  ;  I  could  send 
him  to  gaol  if  I  pleased  ;  so  he  behaves  himself  Half 
the  head  tenants  on  the  estate  are  Catholics  at  heart, 
and  Catholics  in  practice,  too,  for  they  go  to  mass  and 
have  no  fear  of  it.  When  they  sign  their  leases  I  ask 
no  questions  that,  maybe,  they  would  not  like  to 
answer.  If  I  chose  to  do  it  I  might  make  them  swear 
away  their  souls  at  the  quarter  sessions,  but  I  look 
through  my  fingers,  and  they  are  careful  how  far  the)' 
go,  and  so  we  get  on  together  without  quarrelling." 

"  And  this,"  said  Goring  scornfully,  "  is  what  you 
call  governing  Ireland,  hanging  up  your  law  like  a 
scarecrow  in  the  garden  till  every  sparrow  has  learnt 
to  make  a  jest  of  it.  Your  Popery  Acts  !  Well,  you 
borrowed  them  from  France.  The  French  Catholics 
did  not  choose  to  keep  the  Hugonots  among  them, 
and  recalled  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  As  they  treated 
the  Hugonots,  so  \'ou  said  to  all  the  world  that  you 
would  treat  the  Papists.  You  borrowed  from  the 
French  the  very  language  of  your  Statute,  but  they 
are  not  afraid  to  stand  by  their  law,  and  )'OU  are 
afraid  to  stand  by  yours.  You  let  the  people  laugh 
at  it,  and  in  teaching  them  to  despise  one  law,  you 
teach  them  to  despise  all  laws — God's  and  man's 
alike.  I  cannot  say  how  it  will  end  ;  but  I  can  tell 
you  this,  that  you  are  training  up  a  race  with  the 
education  \\'hich  }'ou  are  giving  them  which  will 
astonish  mankind  by  and  b)'e." 

"  You  may  think  so.  Colonel,"  observed  Mr.  Herbert, 
a  polished  gentlemanlike  man,  who  represented  the 
county  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  "  but,  as  our  friend  says 
you  do  not  understand  Ireland.  These  are  not  the 
da}'s  of  Oliver  Cromwell.     We  cannot   ride  the  hisfh 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  121 

Protestant  horse  in  this  century,  and  God  forbid  we 
should.  These  laws,  which  you  say  the  people 
ridicule,  are  what  enable  us  to  live  on  pleasant  terms 
with  them,  because  they  feel  that  they  owe  their 
liberties  to  our  indulgence;  and  the  English  ministers, 
on  the  other  hand,  secure  a  degree  of  toleration  for 
the  Protestants  abroad,  by  intimating  that  if  they 
draw  the  rein  too  hard  on  their  side,  they  may  drive 
us  to  do  the  same  on  ours.  If  wars  or  rebellion  come 
we  must  be  severe  again  ;  there  will  be  no  help  for  it ; 
and  war  I  suppose  there  soon  will  be  if  it  has  not 
broken  out  already  ;  but  as  long  as  peace  continues, 
gentleness  is  the  only  way.  The  poor  Irish  have 
suffered  worse  at  our  hands  than  I  like  to  think  of." 

All  this  time  they  had  been  walking  their  horses 
slowly  forward,  the  agent  still  doubting  whether  it 
would  not  be  wiser  to  postpone  his  visit,  when,  by 
turning  a  corner,  they  came  in  sight  of  the  mouth  of 
the  harbour,  which  had  hitherto  been  concealed,  and 
for  the  first  time  became  conscious  of  the  presence  of 
the  strange  vessel.  They  halted  again,  this  time  all 
with  a  spontaneous  start,  for  many  years  had  passed 
since  any  such  craft  as  this  had  been  seen  or  heard 
of  in  the  Kenmare  River.  A  landsman's  eye  could 
perceive  that  he  had  no  ordinary  trader  before  him, 
which  had  just  put  in  from  stress  of  weather  or  in 
want  of  necessaries.  The  immense  spars,  the  tautly 
set  up  rigging  and  the  unusual  character  of  it,  the 
many  boats  and  the  general  smartness  of  her  style, 
implied  a  crew  too  large  for  a  peaceful  merchantman. 
Though  she  was  a  mile  distant,  they  thought  they 
could  .see  the  gleaming  of  her  polished  guns.  With 
what  object  could  a  French  cruiser  be  anchored  in 
these   quiet   waters  ?     Goring   only   had   any   key    to 


122  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

the  m)'stery.  There  had  been  no  official  declaration  of 
war  ;  but  he  had  received  recent  notice  that  French 
privateers  had  been  seen  outside  the  channel  ;  he 
had  been  directed  particularly  to  look  out  for  one 
which  had  come  recently  out  of  the  Loire.  She  had 
been  seen  in  chase  of  an  English  transport  which 
was  taking  out  stores  and  money  to  the  fleet  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  ship  had  not  since 
been  heard  of,  but  was  supposed  to  have  been  over- 
taken and  plundered.  A  corvette  had  gone  in  pursuit, 
and  had  fallen  in  with  the  privateer,  which,  however, 
had  escaped  through  her  extraordinary  sailing  powers. 
She  was  described  as  of  a  novel  character,  with  fore- 
and-aft  canvas  on  both  masts.  Her  destination  was 
not  known,  but  it  was  supposed  she  might  be  con- 
nected with  some  intended  enterprise  in  Ireland,  and 
a  fieneral  warning;  had  been  sent  to  all  the  stations 
round  the  coast  to  be  on  the  watch. 

Goring  could  hardly  doubt  that  the  vessel  which 
was  lying  quietly  in  Kilmakilloge  harbour  was  the 
very  one  which  had  caused  so  much  alarm.  What 
could  have  induced  her  to  venture  so  far  up  the 
estuary,  and  to  have  anchored  so  publicly  and  so  con- 
spicuously, was  a  mystery,  but  a  mystery  into  which 
his  office  made  it  his  duty  to  enquire.  So  unlooked- 
for  a  visitor  put  an  end  to  all  hesitation  as  to  proceed- 
ing further.  Irish  gentlemen  are  never  wanting  in 
courage.  Lenient  as  they  might  be  with  the  smug- 
gling trade,  they  drew  a  sharp  distinction  between 
commercial  irregularities  and  treasonable  dealings 
with  a  foreign  enemy.  A  French  landing  would  imply 
a  fresh  civil  war  and  a  fresh  fight  for  their  lives.  The 
agent  calculated  that  among  the  Catholics  who  would 
be  attending  the  funeral,  few,  if  any  would  be  armed  ; 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  123 

for  the  law  was  strict  in  this  respect,  and  they  were 
shy  of  openly  breaking  it.  The  Protestant  squireens 
would  probably  have  their  swords  and  pistols,  and  if 
there  was  to  be  a  difficulty  with  the  crew  of  the  priva- 
teer, he  believed  that  he  could  rely  on  them.  At  any 
rate,  he  was  now  determined  to  push  forward  and  sec 
what  it  all  meant. 

"  We  are  taken  by  surprise,  gentlemen,"  he  said. 
"  The  extraordinary  gathering  here  to-day  has  a 
further  purpose  in  it  than  we  know,  and  the  coming 
in  of  this  piratical  stranger  is  in  some  way  connected 
with  it.  There  may  be  danger  both  to  you  and  to  me, 
but  our  duty  is  plain,  and  I  depend  on  you  to  stand 
by  me.  Look  to  the  priming  of  your  pistols,  and  we 
will  ride  forward." 

CHAPTER  XL 

The  house  at  Derreen  stood  in  an  open  space  in  the 
middle  of  the  wood.  The  drive  by  which  it  was  ap- 
proached was  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long,  and  at  the  gate 
where  it  left  the  road  was  the  invariable  lodge  which 
stood  at  the  entrance  of  every  Irish  domain.  It  was 
occupied  by  a  gardener,  and  the  condition  in  which  it 
was  kept  reflected  the  ordinary  character  of  Irish 
labourers.  The  windows  had  been  long  broken,  and 
were  stuffed  with  rags.  The  thatch  had  disappeared 
from  the  roofj  and  the  heather  which  had  been  laid  on 
instead  of  it,  was  held  in  its  place  by  stones  and 
clumps  of  turf  The  door  was  open,  and  there  was  no 
one  to  be  seen,  everybody  who  could  walk  being  at 
the  mansion.  Two  huge  hungry  pigs  were  in  posses- 
sion of  the  kitchen,  and  were  routing  about  a  cradle 
in  which  was  a  deserted  baby.     As  the  agent  and  his 


124  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

party  rode  past,  Goring  sprang  from  his  horse,  drove 
them  out  with  his  whip,  and  gave  sixpence  to  a  girl 
who  was  going  by  to  watch  the  child  till  the  parents 
returned.  He  mounted  quickly  again,  and  they  went 
on.  The  people  coming  back  from  the  funeral  were 
streaming  up  the  drive.  The  greater  part  of  them  had 
already  arrived,  and  were  spread  in  all  directions 
under  the  trees.  It  was  like  a  race  day  at  theCurragh. 
Boys  were  holding  horses,  or  leading  them  round  to 
the  stables  behind  the  house.  The  riders  in  their  long 
coats  and  boots,  with  heavy  hunting  whips  in  their 
hands,  were  talking  eagerly  in  excited  knots.  A  rough 
tent  or  booth  had  been  erected  on  the  lawn,  where  the 
crowd  were  supplied  with  unlimited  whiskey.  The 
superior  guests  were  to  dine  in  the  hall  before  taking 
their  departure,  and  claret  and  brandy  casks  stood  wait- 
ing to  be  broached,  no  drop  of  which  had  contributed 
anything  to  his  Majesty's  hereditary  revenue.  But  either 
the  drink  had  not  yet  taken  effect,  or  some  other  cause 
was  keeping  the  people  quiet.  There  was  little  merri- 
ment, not  even  a  quarrel  or,  so  far,  a  broken  head.  An 
uneasy  sense  of  expectation  appeared  to  be  sitting 
heavy  on  the  whole  assembly,  as  if  some  serious  busi- 
ness or  other  had  still  to  be  transacted  before  the  fun 
could  begin.  One  small  group,  which  was  conversing 
apart  from  the  rest,  drew  particular  attention.  It  con- 
sisted of  young  Mick  Sullivan,  a  gentle-looking  lad, 
whose  succession  was  threatened  with  extinction,  his 
cousin  Sylvester,  and  the  two  officers  in  French  uni- 
form who  had  been  seen  in  the  church}'ard,  and  had 
landed  from  the  vessel  in  the  harbour. 

The  agent  and  his  friends  were  received  as  they 
rode  up  with  stern  silence.  The  agent  himself  was 
acquainted  more  or  less  with  most  of  those  who  were 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV.  125 


present  ;  but  beyond  the  lifting  of  a  hat  or  two,  there 
was  little  sign  either  of  welcome  or  even  of  recognition, 
while  men  like  Mr.  Herbert  or  Mr.  Crosbie  saw  hardly 
anyone  with  whom  under  ordinary  circumstances  they 
would  have  exchanged  the  most  distant  salutation. 
Their  exclusiveness  was  now  repaid  by  a  cold,  in- 
different, and  occasionally  insolent,  stare.  The  temper 
of  the  crowd  was  displayed  with  less  restraint.  When 
it  became  known  who  the  new  arrivals  were,  there  rose 
a  sullen  murmur  like  the  moaning  of  the  sea  before 
a  storm.  That  any  active  resistance  was  deliberately 
contemplated  to  so  formidable  a  person  as  Lord 
Shelbourne's  representative  was  not  likely  if  it  was 
possible  ;  but  the  Irish  temper  was  inflammable,  and 
there  was  no  mistaking  the  resentment  with  which 
the  supposed  purpose  of  his  coming  was  regarded. 

The  gentlemen  alighted  and  gave  their  horses  to 
their  servants,  but  yard  and  stables  were  already  full. 
No  disposition  was  shown  to  take  the  horses  in,  and 
they  were  left  standing  where  they  could  find  room. 
After  an  embarrassed  pause  of  a  minute  or  two,  young 
Mick — on  whom  the  duty  fell  of  receiving  visitors 
at  the  house — came  forward  with  a  cold  welcome. 
The  agent  was  excited  and  awkward. 

"  Mr.  O'Sullivan,"  he  said,  "  1  am  sorry  to  have 
aiTived  too  late  to  pay  my  last  respects  to  the  memory 
of  your  father.  The  estate  has  lost  the  oldest  of  its 
tenants.  It  was  my  duty,  it  was  my  personal  wish, 
to  attend  when  he  was  committed  to  the  grave.  Busi- 
ness unfortunately  detained  me  at  Kenmare,  but  I  am 
in  time  to  repeat  in  person  the  communication  which 
has  been  already  submitted  to  you  in  writing,  and 
which  will  have  set  your  mind  at  rest  as  to  your  future 
comfort.     The  earl's  intentions  towards  you  are  of  the 


126  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


most  liberal  kind,  and  your  removal  from  this  place, 
whenever  it  takes  effect,  will  be  an  improvement  in 
your  station  and  fortune — nay,  will  be  a  subject  of 
congratulation  to  yourself  and  to  all  who  wish  you 
well.  You  have,  I  suppose,  considered  the  paper 
which  has  been  submitted  to  you  ?  " 

The  agent  spoke  firmly,  though  his  voice  shook 
a  little,  for  the  dense  knot  of  people  who  had 
crowded  to  hear  him  and  the  intensity  in  the  ex- 
pression of  their  faces  tried  his  nerves. 

"  Indeed,"  answered  the  youth,  blushing  and  hesi- 
tating, "  his  lordship's  orders  have  been  left  within, 
but  your  honour  knows  one  can  lose  a  father  onl)' 
once  in  this  world,  and  it  is  a  loss  when  it  comes  that 
puts  other  thoughts  out  of  the  mind.  If  ye  will  say 
your  will  I'll  be  ready  to  hear  ye." 

"  Speak  up,  man,"  said  a  voice  behind  him.  "  Don't 
be  downhearted.  Speak  up  to  his  honour.  Sure  ye 
are  among  your  own  kin  and  there  is  none  can 
hurt  ye." 

"  No  one,"  said  the  agent,  "  means  less  hurt  either 
to  my  young  friend  here  or  to  any  gentleman  present 
than  the  Earl  of  Shelbourne,  in  whose  name  I  am  here 
this  day.  For  forty  years,  as  you  well  know,  his  lord- 
ship has  left  the  old  families  on  the  land  from  Tuosist 
to  Iveragh,  and  yourselves  can  say  whether  distress 
for  rent  has  been  ever  heard  of  among  you  for 
all  that  time.  Good  friends  we  have  always  been 
and  good  friends  I  hope  we  shall  remain." 

"  The  blessing  of  God  be  on  you  for  that  word," 
said  Mick  gathering  up  his  courage.  "  If  the  deed 
and  the  word  answer  one  to  the  other  we'll  have  no 
more  to  ask.  It  is  true  for  you,  sir,  my  father  was 
never   distressed    for   the    rent,  for  the  rent,  as  your 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  127 


honour  can  tell,  was  always  paid  to  the  day,  and  what 
for  now  would  the  Earl  be  putting  us  out,  as  your  paper 
speaks  of,  from  the  home  where  we  were  born  and  our 
posterity  behind  us  ?  " 

"  My  good  fellow,"  said  the  agent,  a  little  pettishly, 
"  your  posterity  shall  prosper  after  you,  and  you  shall 
prosper  too,  if  the  Earl  and  I  can  help  you,  and  how 
can  you  speak  of  your  being  put  out  when  ye  shall 
have  the  best  farm  in  County  Meath  in  exchange  for 
the  bogs  and  rocks  of  Kilmakilloge  ?  " 

"  His  lordship  is  mighty  kind,  and  we  are  greatly 
obliged  to  him,"  answered  the  youth.  "  But  the  rocks 
and  bogs  ye  spake  of  are  where  my  fathers  have 
reigned  for  a  thousand  years  and  more.  The  moun- 
tains bear  our  names,  our  hearts  are  in  our  glens  and 
among  our  own  kinsfolk,  and  we  wish  for  no  better. 
Here  we  have  lived.  Here,  if  it  please  your  honour 
and  his  lordship,  we  would  like  to  remain  un- 
disturbed, and  if  ye  will  just  lave  us  alone  it  is  all  that 
we  will  desire  of  ye." 

The  audience  hummed  approval.  "  Bravo  Mick," 
half  a  dozen  voices  shouted.  "  That  is  the  truth,  if 
the  Divil  spoke  it."  The  agent  feeling  that,  so  far, 
he  had  made  no  progress,  stepped  boldly  to  the  top 
of  the  rock  and  addressed  them  all. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "we  all  know,  for  we  are 
never  tired  of  repeating  it,  that  the  Irish  are  the  finest 
race  under  the  sun.  That  is  your  opinion,  and  it  is 
my  own  too,  for  Ireland  is  as  much  my  country  as  it 
is  yours.  We  also  know,  or  if  we  do  not,  'twere  well 
we  should,  that  under  the  sun  there  is  no  country 
where  the  inhabitants  live  more  wretchedly,  or  where 
the  soil  is  worked  to  poorer  profit.  This  valley  is 
now  as  barren  as  the  rest,  yet  it  has  not  been  always 


128  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

barren,  as  some  of  you  may  perhaps  remember.  Time 
was,  when  copper  was  brought  here  to  be  smelted  in 
thousands  of  tons.  You  may  see  to-day  the  channels 
which  brought  the  streams  to  the  water  mills.  You 
may  see  the  pyramids  of  cinders  left  behind  by  the 
furnaces.  Time  was  when  there  were  a  dozen  boat- 
yards at  Buna,  and  a  hundred  fishing  boats,  made 
and  manned  on  the  estate,  brought  cod  and  ling  from 
Scariff,  and  turbot  and  soles  from  Ballinskelligs.  On 
Colorus  yonder  stand  the  ruins  of  the  fish  houses, 
where  the  herrings  were  salted  and  dried,  and  were 
carried  to  all  lands.  There  was  industry,  there  was 
plenty,  in  the  days  of  the  Earl's  father  ;  and  the  Earl 
that  now  is  would  bring  the  good  times  back  again. 
The  land  is  his,  and  you  are  his  children,  whom 
Gcd  has  given  him.  You  desired  to  be  left  to 
yourselves.  He  consented,  and  you  see  what  has 
come  of  it. 

"  Once  more,  therefore,  he  will  put  his  own  shoulder 
to  the  wheel.  He  will  give  you  back  a  prosperity 
which  you  cannot  create  for  yourselves.  He  will 
send  again  trained  workmen  of  his  own,  and  for  every 
stranger  that  is  brought  among  you,  there  will  be 
work  and  wages  for  half-a-dozen  of  yourselves.  The 
mill  wheels  shall  run  again,  and  the  carpenter's 
hammer  shall  be  heard  in  the  yards.  There  shall  be 
nets  and  lines  for  the  fish,  and  your  own  hands  shall 
be  taught  to  make  them  and  to  use  them  ;  and  the 
bogs  shall  be  drained,  and  oats  and  barley  shall  spring 
where  there  is  now  but  the  snipe  and  the  curlew. 
These  are  his  Lordship's  intentions  by  you,  and  if  you 
will  do  your  part  as  he  will  do  his,  there  will  be  a  new 
world  in  Kerry  from  this  day." 

The  crowd  listened,  but  they  listened,  most  of  them, 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  ^  129 


with  a  half  good-humoured  contempt,  the  rest  in 
sulky  silence. 

"  Is  it  the  old  times  he'd  bring  back  again  ?  "  cried 
a  wrinkled,  weather-beaten  old  woman,  who  sat  croon- 
ing on  the  step  before  the  door.  "  I  mind  those  times. 
That  was  when  the  Protestant  Saxons  were  here,  the 
Divil  mend  them,  who  believed  neither  in  Saint  nor 
Spirit,  nor  the  Blessed  Virgin  herself.  We  were 
Papist  dogs  then,  and  lucky  we  used  to  think  ourselves 
if  they  flung  us  an  old  bone  to  crunch.  And  what  was 
the  end  of  them  ?  The  storm  came  off  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  Divil  came  along  with  it,  and  carried 
them  all  away,  thim  and  their  boats  and  their  money. 
Will  ye  fly  in  the  face  of  God  that  made  ye,  and  set 
up  the  like  of  them  again  ?  " 

"  'Tis  well  seen,  your  honour,"  said  a  decent-looking 
man,  ''  that  each  people  in  this  world  likes  its  own 
ways,  and  little  is  the  good  that  comes  from  forcing 
them.  The  English,  don't  we  know  it,  are  mighty 
and  powerful  ;  they  have  great  ships,  and  armies,  and 
trade,  and  manufactures,  and  such  like,  and  fond  they 
are  of  what  they  have  got,  for  they  won't  allow  a  taste 
of  it  to  the  poor  Irish,  any  way.  But  if  that  is  to  be 
the  order  of  it,  we'd  be  better  pleased  if  they  would 
keep  to  their  own  island,  and  leave  us  to  ourselves. 
We  don't  want  any  more  Protestants  down  here,  at  all, 
at  all." 

Mick  had  spoken  no  more,  but  someone  whispered 
a  word  in  his  ear  ;  he  roused  himself,  and  said  : 

"  Your  honour  has  not  precisely  told  us  what  you 
are  now  purposing  to  do,  and,  barring  the  respect  for 
my  father,  for  which  I  thank  you,  we  don't  }'et  know 
exactly  for  what  purpose  you  are  here  this  day.  But 
I'd  be  sorry    ye    should    be  without    the    hospitality 

9 


I30  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


of  the  house,  and  I'd  ask  ye  to   dine  with  us,  if  ye 
mean  as  well  as  ye  say  ye  do." 

"  There  should  be  no  doubt  of  that,"  answered  the 
agent,  cheerfully.  "  We  have  had  a  long  ride,  and  we 
will  take  your  offer  and  thank  you.  If  ye'd  order  a 
feed  for  our  horses,  they  would  be  none  the  worse  for 
it,  for  there  they  stand,  poor  things.  Good  friends  I 
hope  we  will  always  be,  Mr.  O'Sullivan,  and  as  to  my 
purpose  this  day,  have  no  fear  that  I'd  be  disturbing 
you.  You  will  stay  where  you  are,  and  welcome,  till 
we  have  a  better  place  ready  to  receive  you.  The 
Earl's  orders  were  that  nothing  was  to  be  done  hard 
or  hasty.  I  must  lea\'e  a  clerk  in  the  house  with  you, 
with  a  servant  or  two,  just  for  form's  sake — but  )-ou 
will  find  him  pleasant  company,  and  yourself  and  the 
family  will  take  your  own  time." 

A  blank  pause  followed  this  announcement,  inter- 
rupted only  by  the  sobs  and  cries  of  some  of  the 
women.  In  the  midst  of  the  general  uncertainty, 
Sylvester  O'Sullivan,  who  had  kept,  hitherto,  in  the 
background,  now  shuffled  forward,  with  the  abject 
manner  under  which  ever\'  Irishman  knows  so  well 
how  to  conceal  his  real  feeling. 

"  Your  honour  will  not  mistake  the  poor  boy,"  he 
said.  "  It  is  proud  we  are  to  see  you  yourself 
and  the  other  gentlemen  that  are  with  you  ;  and 
we  are  grateful  for  your  kind  intentions.  The 
errand  you  are  come  upon  might  have  been  softer  in 
our  ears,  if  it  had  so  pleased  your  honour  and  his 
lordship — but  the  Earl  knows  best,  and  when  he 
gives  his  commands  we  are  to  obey.  Sure  it  is 
distinction  enough,  and  well  we  know  it,  for  the  like 
of  us  to  live  under  his  lordship's  rule,  and  a  good 
lord  he  has  been  to  us  these  many  years,  the  Saints 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  131 


be  praised  !  If  he  is  mailing  now  to  take  the  domain 
into  his  own  hands,  we  have  heard  you  tell  us  how  all 
is  intinded  for  our  good.  We  are  poor,  and  he  will 
take  pity  on  us.  If  he  will  be  planting  the  guineas 
for  us  among  our  bogs,  like  the  potatoes,  the  Lord 
bless  him  for  that  same,  and  it  is  like  we  will  have 
two  for  one.  The  guineas  would  have  grown  none  the 
worse,  maybe,  had  he  been  consenting  to  leave  young 
Macfinnan  in  the  old  place— but  it  will  have  to  be  as 
you  please,  and  none  here  shall  speak  a  word  against 
it,  good  or  bad." 

He  drew  back,  as  if  he  had  no  more  to  say — then, 
as  if  recollecting  something  he  had  forgotten  : 

"  I  have  a  bit  of  paper,"  he  said  ;  "  it  had  like  to 
have  escaped  me,  which  I  was  to  give  into  your 
honour's  own  hand — maybe  ye  will  cast  your  eye  an 
it  before  ye  lave  your  final  orders  with  us." 

Notwithstanding  Sylvester's  affected  humility,  the 
agent  thought  he  detected  something  insolent  in  his 
manner.  The  "  bit  of  paper  "  he  supposed  to  contain 
one  of  the  innumerable  petitions  which  were  thrust 
upon  him  when  he  went  his  rounds  on  the  estate. 
He  waited  impatiently  while  the  old  man  fumbled  in 
his  pocket.  He  was  not  a  little  surprised  when  it 
proved  to  be  a  letter,  formally  addressed  to  himself, 
and  sealed  with  a  coronetted  coat  of  arms.  He  broke 
it  hastily  open,  glanced  over  the  few  lines  which  it 
contained,  and  looked  again  at  the  seal  with  combined 
incredulity  and  uneasiness. 

"  How  came  you  by  this,  Mr.  Sylvester  ?  "  he  said 
sternly.  "  My  Lord  Fitzmaurice  has  employed  a 
singular  messenger.  The  date  is  yesterday.  Do  you 
know  the  contents  of  this  letter  ?  " 

"  Your  honour,  I  was  at  Killarney  last  night,  on  a 

9* 


132  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


little  business  of  my  own,"  Sylvester  answered,  "  and 
I  thought  I  would  just  look  round  upon  my  lord,  in 
the  Castle,  to  learn  if  he  had  any  commands.  I  tould 
him  I'd  maybe  see  your  honour  at  Kilmakilloge 
this  day — so  he  just  wrote  what  you  hold  in  your 
hand,  and  he  sealed  it  up  ;  and  I  rode  back  with  it 
over  the  mountains  to  Sneem,  in  the  early  morning, 
to  be  in  time  for  the  boys  that  were  coming  to  the 
funeral,  to  bring  me  across  the  water.  'Twas  making 
haste  I  was,  for  fear  I'd  be  disappointing  you." 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  agent  to  his  own  immediate 
companions,  and  taking  no  notice  of  the  malice  of 
Sylvester's  last  words,  "  Do  any  of  you  know  Lord 
Fitzmaurice's  hand?  You,  Mr.  Herbert,  must  be 
familiar  with  it.  With  you.  Colonel  Goring,  I  know 
that  he  has  communicated  more  than  once.  Look  at 
this,  and  tell  me  whose  it  is  ?  " 

"  The  writing  is  Lord  Fitzmaurice's,  there  cannot 
be  a  doubt  of  it,"  they  both  said,  without  the  slightest 
hesitation. 

"  Then,  gentlemen,"  said  the  agent,  "  I  will  read 
the  lettei-  aloud.  It  concerns  every  one  present,  almost 
as  niiuch  as  it  concerns  myself. 

"  '  The  Earl  of  Shelbourne  died  in  London  four  days 
ago.  You  will  leave  young  Macfinnan  in  possession 
of  Derreen  till  you  hear  further  from  me.' 

"  Those  are  the  words  which  are  here  written. 
How  the  Earl  could  have  died  four  days  since,  in 
England,  and  the  news  be  known  }^esterday  at 
Killarney,  remains  unexplained.  I  had  a  letter  from 
the. Earl  himself  yesterday  morning.  It  was  dated  a 
fortnight  back,  and  at  that  time  he  was  in  good 
health." 

"  There    was    a    whispering    in     the    town,"    said 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  133 


Sylvester,  with  an  air  of  absolute  innocence,  "  that  a 
pigeon  had  come  over  with  a  note  at  the  leg  of  it,  and 
that  my  lord  was  now  King  of  Kerry  ;  but  it  was  no 
business  of  mine,  and  sure  I  thought  his  lordship 
would  have  told  me  anything  it  was  fit  I  should 
know." 

''  There  can  be  no  question  that  this  is  his  lord- 
ship's hand  and  seal,"  the  agent  declared.  *'  I  can 
myself  swear  to  it.  And  this  being  so,  our  business 
here,  for  the  day,  is  ended.  Macfinnan,"  he  went  on, 
calling  Mick,  for  the  first  time,  by  his  title,  and 
shaking  him  by  the  hand,  "If  this  news  proves  true, 
I  give  you  my  hearty  congratulations.  My  Lord 
Fitzmaurice  is  a  good  friend  to  the  old  blood — for  it 
runs  in  his  own  veins — and  if  it  pleases  him  to  con- 
tinue me  in  the  charge  of  this  estate,  you  and  I  will 
have  no  quarrels,  depend  on  that.  I  never  yet,  of  my 
own  will,  disturbed  a  tenant — lease  or  no  lease — and, 
with  God's  help,  I  never  will.  We  will  just  drink 
your  health  in  a  glass  of  your  father's  claret,  and  leave 
you  to  your  sorrow  and  your  joy." 

The  good  news  flew  over  the  ground  from  lip  to 
lip.  "  The  ould  Earl  is  dead — Glory  be  to  God  !  The 
ould  Earl's  out,  and  the  new  Earl  is  in.  Long  life  to 
him,  and  long  may  he  reign  ;  for  it  is  a  good  begin- 
ning that  he  has  made  with  it.  The  last  is  gone  of 
the  English  blood,  and  long  may  it  be  before  another 
comes  to  trouble  us.  Fitzmaurice  comes  of  the 
Geraldines — God  bless  him  !  He  is  the  boy  that  will 
keep  the  Protestants  off  the  backs  of  us,  and  the 
bailiffs  and  the  revenue  lads — bad  cess  to  the  whole 
of  them  !  The  Lord  spare  him  to  us,  and  give  us 
another  like  him  when  he  is  gone  !  " 

To  the    immense   multitude  the   news    that    Mac- 


134  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

finnan  was  to  remain  gave  boundless  delight,  and 
even  to  the  gentlemen  who  had  come  with  the  agent 
it  was  a  relief,  though  they  had  been  prepared  to 
support  him  had  it  been  necessary.  English  authority 
had  fallen  so  low  in  popular  estimation  that  it  could 
not  have  been  revived  without  a  struggle  ;  and 
conscious  as  they  were  that  it  would  have  to  be  done 
eventualh^  if  they  were  not  themselves  to  be  driven 
out  of  Ireland,  they  drew  a  long  breath  of  satisfac- 
tion at  the  immediate  reprieve.  If  the  French  came, 
or  if  there  was  a  rebellion,  the  English  would  be  then 
obliged  to  take  decisive  measures,  and  the  dangers 
and  the  odium  would  not  be  thrown  upon  them.  Of 
the  smaller  Protestant  squires,  some  crowded  about 
the  young  chief  to  shake  his  hand.  Others  jested 
and  laughed  with  Sylvester,  who,  they  now  well 
understood,  had  brought  about  Lord  Fitzmaurice's 
interference  at  so  opportune  a  moment.  The  whole 
party  began  then  to  move  in  general  good  humour 
towards  the  hall-door  "  to  drink  Mick's  health,"  as 
the  agent  said,  "  and  then  break  up  and  go  home." 

To  Colonel  Goring  the  defeat  of  his  hopes  was 
naturally  a  severe  disappointment  ;  but  he  was  a  man 
who,  like  Horatio,  had  schooled  himself  to  take 
Fortune's  buffets  and  rewards  with  equal  thanks.  He 
could  still  do  his  own  duty,  and  Providence  would 
shape  the  issue.  Meanwhile,  another  object  required 
his  immediate  consideration.  He  had  not  forgotten 
the  mysterious  vessel  in  the  harbour  or  his  own  obliga- 
tion to  enquire  into  her  character.  The  news  of  Lord 
Shelbourne's  death  might  have  driven  the  recollection 
of  her  out  of  the  mind  of  the  agent.  Goring's  direct 
duty  was  to  learn  what  she  was.  The  two  officers 
who  had    been    in   the   ring  surrounding  the    young 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY.  135 


O'Sullivan  evidently  belonged  to  her,  and  in  one  of 
them  he  had  no  difficulty  in  recognising  the  person 
whom  he  had  met  on  the  mountain  above  Glenbeg. 
Indeed,  the  man  so  little  tried  to  conceal  his  identity 
that  when  he  saw  Colonel  Goring's  eye  rest  upon 
him,  he  seemed  rather  amused  than  alarmed,  and 
replied  with  an  ironical  smile.  It  was  to  his  com- 
panion however,  that  the  Colonel's  attention  was 
directed  most  anxiously  He  was  sure  that  he  had 
seen  him  somewhere,  and  after  struggling  with  his 
recollections,  he  satisfied  himself  that  the  officer 
before  him  was  no  other  than  the  Morty  Sullivan 
who  had  been  his  prisoner  with  Sir  Edward  Sheridan 
after  Culloden,  who  had  escaped,  and  had  made  his 
way  on  board  the  Nantes  brig  which  was  waiting  on 
the  coast.  O'Sullivan's  name  had  been  proclaimed, 
and  a  reward  offered  for  his  capture,  dead  or  alive.  He 
was  known  to  have  fought  at  Fontenoy  before  the 
expedition  to  Scotland,  and  to  have  been  afterwards 
with  the  Prince  at  Paris.  His  name  had  been  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  the  privateer  which 
Colonel  Goring  had  been  warned  to  look  out  for. 
In  an  instant  the  whole  situation  explained  itself 
Without  hesitation  he  walked  directly  up  to  where 
Morty  was  standing. 

"  We  have  met  before,  Mr.  O'Sullivan,"  he  said. 
"  I  do  not  easily  forget  a  face." 

"  No  one  asked  you  to  forget  it,  Colonel  Goring, 
for  that,  I  believe,  is  your  name.  If  you  have  any 
doubt,  you  may  look  again.  It  will  not  be  turned 
away  from  you." 

The  sharp  challenge  and  the  prompt  reply  startled 
everyone.  The  move  towards  the  house  was  arrested, 
and  all  stopped  to  know  what  next  was  coming.     To 


136  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


most  of  the  party  present  Morty  was  personally  un- 
known, while  Goring,  if  he  was  disliked,  was  feared 
and  respected. 

"  Gentleman,"  Goring  said,  "  I  must  call  for  your 
assistance  in  the  name  of  the  law.  The  person  whom 
you  see  before  you  is  a  proclaimed  rebel,  with  a  price 
on  his  head.  He  was  with  the  Pretender  in  Scotland, 
was  captured,  and  for  a  few  hours  was  under  my  own 
charge.  The  strange  vessel  in  the  harbour  I  believe 
to  be  the  privateer  which  I  have  been  ordered  by  the 
Government  to  look  out  for.  I  suppose  him  to  be 
her  captain.  If  I  am  mistaken  in  his  character  he 
can  clear  himself  by  producing  his  papers  ;  but  that 
he  is  the  same  Morty  O'Sullivan  who  has  been  out- 
lawed, I  am  ready  to  swear.  I  arrest  him,  and  I 
require  you  all,  on  your  allegiance,  to  prevent  his 
escape." 

Ready  as  they  were  to  throw  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  the  law  when  it  merely  interfered  with  the  general 
license,  the  Irish  squires  were  careful  how  they 
meddled  in  defence  of  criminals  of  a  more  serious 
kind.  As  long  as  it  was  a  question  of  a  duel,  or  a 
faction  fight,  or  frauds  on  the  revenue,  or  of  informa- 
tions under  the  Popery  Acts,  the  Imperial  authority 
interfered  as  rarely  as  possible.  But  a  sharp  line  was 
drawn  at  rebellion.  Those  who  were  rash  enough  to 
take  arms  against  the  Crown,  or  were  discovered  to 
have  been  involved,  however  secretly,  in  any  treason- 
able correspondence,  were  instantly  crushed. 

The  Pretender  had  few  friends  left  in  Ireland, 
Catholic  or  Protestant.  Several  of  the  landlords 
present  were  in  the  commission  of  the  peace,  and 
although  Morty  might  count  on  the  support  of  the 
crowd,  who  were  always   on  the  side  of  the  offender, 


THE  TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  137 


be  the  offence  what  it  would,  yet  there  was  an 
obvious  hesitation  among  those  who  had  anything 
to  lose,  and  whose  punishment,  if  they  were  wanting 
in  their  duty  on  so  gross  an  occasion,  would  be  as 
sure  as  it  would  be  severe. 

Morty,  seeing  them  uncertain,  sprang  to  the  top  of 
a  rise  in  the  ground. 

"  Arrest  me  !  will  you  ?  "  he  said.  "  Arrest  me  ! 
that  you  may  set  my  head  on  your  Temple  Bar, 
beside  Kilmarnock's  and  Balmerino's.  Then  I  must 
send  for  them  who  will  put  in  bail  for  me !  " 

With  a  silver  whistle  which  hung  by  a  cord  about 
his  neck,  he  thrice  blew  a  sharp,  shrill  call,  and  out 
of  the  wood  on  all  sides  there  rushed  out  bodies  of 
seamen,  armed  to  the  teeth  with  cutlass,  dirk  and 
pistol.  They  were  under  command  of  a  third  officer, 
seemingly  French,  who  had  the  air  of  a  gentleman. 
Such  of  his  men  as  were  immediately  attached  to 
him  were  in  the  plain  dress  of  the  crew  of  a  man-o'- 
war.  The  rest  were  ruffians  of  all  nations,  in  all 
varieties  of  costumes  —  Danes,  Swedes,  Spaniards, 
Portuguese,  escaped  Negroes  from  the  Plantations, 
desperate  men  inured  to  violence,  and  reckless  of  it, 
and  ready  for  any  service  which  their  commander 
might  require  of  them. 

"  Go,  Connell,'"'  Morty  said  to  his  young  companion, 
who  was  still  at  his  side.  "  Go,  help  de  Chaumont  to 
hold  those  blood-hounds  in  the  leash,  or  we  shall  have 
the  place  turned  into  a  shambles  in  a  moment. 
You  see  those  men,"  he  said,  looking  full  at  Goring, 
the  agent  and  the  rest.  "  You  see  those  men,  what 
they  are,  and  how  many  they  are.  Let  but  one  of 
you  lift  a  hand  to  touch  me,  and  the  soil  you  stand 
on  shall  run  with  blood,  and  not   one   of  you  shall 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 


leave  these  grounds  alive.  Privateer !  Yes,  I  am  that 
Privateer,  or  Sea  Rover,  of  whom  you  have  heard  some- 
thing and  may  feel  more  if  you  choose  to  try.  I  am 
a  French  subject.  To  England  I  owe  no  allegiance. 
England  has  stripped  me  of  my  house  and  my  lands, 
and  while  I  live  I  will  do  what  lies  in  my  single  arm 
on  land  or  sea  to  pay  back  my  debt.  I  am  here 
to  be  present  at  the  burial  of  my  kinsman.  I  will  go 
hence  as  I  came.  I  have  injured  none  of  you.  I  mean 
to  injure  none.     Meddle  with  me  now,  if  you  dare  !  " 

Seeing  themselves  surrounded  by  sixty  or  seventy 
armed  ruffians,  and  well  aware  that  if  there  was  any 
fighting  the  peasantry  would  take  Morty's  side,  the 
gentlemen  concluded  that  they  would  be  held  excused 
to  the  authorities  for  declining  an  unequal  struggle 
and  taking  him  at  his  word.  Even  if  they  had  been 
prepared  for  such  a  conflict,  and  willing  to  fight,  the 
issue  could  hardly  have  been  other  than  fatal  to  them, 
for  it  was  by  this  time  known  to  the  crowd  who 
Morty  was,  and  the  whole  domain  was  ringing  with 
his  name,  and  with  the  shouts  of  enthusiasm  which 
it  called  out.  Goring  himself  saw  that  it  would  be 
useless  to  persist  in  the  arrest. 

"  You  have  taken  us  by  surprise.  Captain  Sullivan," 
he  said,  "  and  you  have  our  lives  in  your  hands  if 
you  please  to  murder  us.  I  tell  you  none  the  less, 
and  to  your  face,  and  in  the  face  of  these  villains  of 
yours,  who,  if  any  doubt  remained,  are  evidence  enough 
of  your  real  character,  that  you  are  a  Rebel,  a  Pirate, 
a  murderer  for  all  that  I  know — you  have  forfeited  your 
life  to  the  law  as  a  felon,  and  you  will  come  to  a 
felon's  end.  England  is  slow  to  strike,  but  her  arm 
is  long,  and  with  such  as  you  she  knows  how  to  deal. 
I  tell  you  distinctly  and  you  may  do  what  you  will 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  139 

with  it,  if  I  leave  this  place  alive  I  will   bring  an  Eng- 
lish frigate  upon  you  before  a  week  is  out." 

"  Whisht,  man,"  whispered  the  agent,  aghast  at 
Goring's  words.  "  Are  ye  mad  that  ye  spake  so  ? 
Will  ye  have  us  all  murdered  ?  Sure  if  it's  the  divil 
himself  ye  will  lose  nothing  by  keeping  a  civil 
tongue  in   your  head." 

Indeed  it  seemed  as  if  Goring  was  wilfully  pro- 
voking his  fate.  Morty  bit  his  lips  till  the  blood  ran. 
Luckily,  not  many  of  his  men  knew  English  or 
understood  what  had  been  said,  but  they  saw  that 
their  Captain  had  been  insulted.  They  drew  their 
cutlasses  and  unslung  their  musketoons.  At  a 
word  from  him,  a  shower  of  balls  would  have  been 
their  answer  to  Goring's  threat.  But  it  was  Morty's 
object  to  avoid  a  quarrel  with  the  gentry,  many  of 
whom  in  their  hearts  washed  him  well. 

"  Gentlemen,"  he  said,  reining  in  his  passion,  and 
forcing  himself  to  speak  calmly.  "  Colonel  Goring 
tells  me  that  I  am  a  pirate,  and  that  my  life  is 
forfeited.  I  will  give  him  a  chance  to  take  it.  For 
what  I  am,  and  for  what  that  vessel  is  which  I 
have  the  honour  to  command,  I  have  no  answer  to 
give.  I  will  answer,  if  called  on,  to  my  own  Sovereign, 
King  Louis  of  France,  and  to  no  other.  But  if 
Colonel  Goring  desires  to  know  what  has  brought 
me  back  to  these  shores,  when  France  and  Spain 
offered  me  rank  in  their  armies,  and  with  them  I 
could  have  fought  in  honourable  service  against  our 
hereditary  enemy,  I  will  tell  him  that,  he  is  himself 
the  reason.  My  quarrel  is  with  him.  Let  us  end  it, 
and  then  if  my  presence  on  this  coast  is  a  danger  to 
the  rest  of  you,  I  will  go  ;  and  you  shall  hear  of  me 
no  more. 


I40  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 


"  It  is  not,  sir,"  he  went  on,  turning  direct  to  the 
Colonel :  "  It  is  not  that  you  would  have  murdered 
myself  and  my  friend  after  Culloden.  You  were  then 
but  one  of  the  myrmidons  of  the  Butcher  Cum*ber- 
land.  What  you  did  was  by  his  orders,  and  I  do  not 
hold  the  slave  responsible  for  his  master's  brutalities. 
It  is  not  that  you  are  the  so-called  owner  of  the  land 
of  my  fathers,  in  possession  of  my  own  Castle  at 
Dunboy,  which  they  defended  till  every  stone  which 
was  battered  down  by  Carew's  cannon  was  paid  for 
by  an  English  life.  It  is  not  that  you  have  dis- 
honoured your  station  as  a  soldier  and  a  gentleman, 
by  becoming  a  servant  of  the  Revenue  Board,  the 
accursed  instrument  of  England's  commercial  tyranny. 
For  all  this  you  may  plead  law,  duty,  or  any  other 
specious  excuse,  and  I  should  leave  you  to  be  tried 
and  judged  by  the  verdict  of  every  honest  Irishman. 
The  falcon  does  not  stoop  on  sparrow-hawks,  and 
your  flight  would  have  been  too  low  for  eye  of  mine 
to  heed. 

"  But  you  have  done  to  me,  I  say,  personally  to  me, 
you  have  done  a  deadly  wrong,  and  I  value  my  life 
only  as  it  may  give  me  the  means  to  be  revenged  upon 
you.  From  what  you  call  your  estate  at  Dunboy 
you  have  swept  off  many  a  poor  family  of  my  own 
clan,  who  have  been  on  the  soil  since  the  days  of 
Malachi.  You  have  brought  your  Swaddlers  from 
Cornwall  and  your  Presbyterians  from  the  black 
North  to  take  the  place  of  them.  But  you  have  done 
worse.  Like  a  coward  as  you  are,  you  have  made 
war  on  weak  women :  my  mother,  who,  if  all  had  their 
rights,  would  have  reigned  as  a  queen  in  these  glens 
and  mountains,  my  mother,  whose  grey  hairs  alone 
might  have  pleaded   with   you    to    hold  your   hand, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  141 

my  mother,  my  sister  left  a  widow  with  her  child,  you 
drove  them  out  both  from  the  poor  refuge  which  had 
been  left  to  them  in  the  Castle  at  Dursey.  My  sister, 
who  was  gently  nurtured,  has  found  shelter  among 
kindly  but  rude  seamen,  in  a  cabin  where  you  w^ould 
not  keep  your  own  riding  horse.  My  mother  is  dead. 
Her  blood  is  on  your  hands.  Colonel  Goring,  and  I 
call  you  to  account  for  it." 

Morty  had  not  calculated  without  reason  on  the 
effect  of  such  a  speech  upon  the  listeners  who  were 
hanging  upon  his  lips.  Colonel  Goring  was  un- 
popular. He  had  come  into  the  country  as  a  stranger 
and  an  Englishman.  The  zeal  with  which  he  had 
discharged  his  office  had  made  him  more  enemies  than 
friends.  He  had  held  aloof  from  the  coarse  society 
of  the  neighbourhood,  and  had  been  considered 
fastidious  and  insolent.  With  his  Protestant  enthu- 
siasm there  was  no  sympathy  at  all,  and  he  was 
believed  universally  to  have  prompted  the  late  Earl 
of  Shelbourne  in  his  intended  measures  at  Kilmakil- 
loge.  He  was  conscious  at  the  moment  that  he  had 
not  a  single  well-wisher  on  the  ground,  and  that  he 
must  fight  his  own  battle.  He  was  not  disturbed. 
He  listened  gravely,  but  with  unbroken  composure. 

"Captain  Sullivan,"  he  replied,  "your  own  language 
justifies  the  words  which  I  used  to  you.  You  do  not 
deny  your  identity.  You  cannot  shake  off  your  alle- 
giance by  abjuring  it.  You  do  not  pretend  that  you  are 
not  at  this  instant  in  arms  against  your  lawful  sove- 
reign. I  did  not  know  when  I  removed  them  that  the 
ladies  in  Dursey  Island  were  relatives  of  yours.  I  am 
sorry,  as  a  man,  for  what  they  suffered,  but  the  connec- 
tion, which  I  now  hear  of  for  the  first  time,  shews  me 
that  my  decision  was  a  ris^ht  one.      The  castle  which 


142  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

they  occupied  was  the  depot  of  the  contraband  trade  of 
Bantry  Bay.  They  themseh-es  abused  the  courtesy 
which  had  been  extended  to  them  on  account  of  their 
station  and  sex.  They  were  left  without  supervision, 
and  under  the  shelter  of  their  protection  the  smugglers 
carried  on  their  business  in  security  from  interference. 
It  was  impossible  for  me  to  allow  them  to  remain 
there.  I  offered  them  a  comfortable  home  in  a 
quarter  where  they  could  not  be  dangerous.  They 
refused  to  accept  it.  If  Mrs.  O'Sullivan  had  been 
contented  to  live  quietly  on  the  Island,  she  would 
have  met  with  every  consideration  from  me.  If  her 
death  was  accelerated  by  her  removal,  I  say  again 
that  I  am  sorry  for  it.  But  if  she  chose  to  connect 
herself  with  practices  which  I  was  bound  to  repress,  I 
am  not  answerable.  I  did  but  my  duty,  and  I  would 
do  it  again." 

''  Not  answerable  !  "  cried  Morty  furiously.  "  By 
the  living  God,  but  you  shall  be  answerable  !  You 
fight  with  women,  and  you  are  afraid  to  stand  up  to  a 
single  man  !  I  might  shoot  you  there  where  you  are, 
and  who  would  blame  me  for  it  ?  But  I  will  take  no 
advantage.  Step  out  upon  the  grass,  here  where  we 
stand,  and  meet  me  man  to  man  ;  you  have  your  own 
friends  about  you  to  see  fair  play — don't  pretend  you 
are  afraid  of  these  fellows  of  mine.  Each  one  of  them 
knows  I  would  put  a  ball  through  him  if  he  dared  to 
meddle.  Stand  out,  I  say  !  I  came  back,  when  I  had 
never  thought  to  see  Ireland  again,  to  call  you  to  a 
reckoning,  and  I  will  have  it  of  you,  or  I  will  know 
why.  Are  you  a  coward,  man,  as  well  as  a  villain,  that 
you  hesitate  ?  " 

"  You  and  I  have  crossed  swords  once  already,"  re- 
plied Goring  with  entirely  unruffled  coolness,  "  and  you 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  143 

know  best  who  turned  his  back  on  that  occasion.  If 
I  hesitate  it  is  because  I  doubt  whether,  as  holding 
the  King's  commission,  I  can  honourably  exchange 
shots  as  an  equal  with  a  proscribed  outlaw.  Else- 
where the  rules  of  Society  would  forbid  me,  but 
Ireland  is  not  a  civilized  country.  She  has  laws  and 
customs  of  her  own,  which  those  who  live  here  must 
sometimes  comply  with.  Whatever  you  may  be,  you 
are  a  gentleman  born.  Captain  O'Sullivan.  You  have 
served,  I  believe,  with  distinction  in  the  Austrian 
army,  and  though  you  are  disgracing  yourself  by  your 
present  occupation,  I  think  I  may  gratify  you  without 
any  great  indecorum." 

Universal  as  was  the  practice  of  duelling  in  Ireland 
in  every  rank  but  the  lowest — and  there,  too,  the 
change  was  only  from  sword  and  pistol  to  the  black- 
thorn— the  agent  felt  that  he  must  put  in  an  appear- 
ance of  protest.  That  such  a  scene  should  take  place 
on  Lord  Shelbourne's  estate,  under  his  own  eye,  and 
without  objection  raised,  might  easily  cost  him  his 
place.  He  reflected,  besides,  that  if  Colonel  Goring 
fell,  he  might  be  charged  with  having  allowed  a 
Government  official  to  be  assassinated  by  pirates  ; 
while,  if  it  went  the  other  way,  Morty's  comrades 
would  probably  avenge  him  by  a  general  massacre. 

The  more  he  reflected,  the  less  he  liked  the  prospect. 
"  No,  no,"  he  said  to  Goring.  "  You  shall  not.  It 
must  not  be." 

No  one  could  be  more  conscious  than  Goring  that  to 
fight  a  duel  under  such  circumstances  was  altogether 
unbecoming  to  a  person  in  his  position.  Independently 
of  the  religious  objections  which  he  could  not  forget, 
his  office,  his  rank  in  the  Service,  the  stand  which  he 
had  made  and  was  making  against  the  relaxed  habits 


144  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

of  Irish  Society,  alike  forbade  him  to  risk  his  life  in 
open  conflict  with  a  pirate  and  a  rebel.  But  in 
Goring,  too,  original  sin  was  not  wholly  eliminated, 
and  Nature  will  have  her  way  on  some  occasions,  even 
with  the  wisest.  Morty  Sullivan  had  insulted  him 
beyond  bearing.  He  felt,  besides,  that  if  he  was 
thought  to  have  flinched  when  thus  openly  challenged, 
his  influence  in  the  South  of  Ireland  would  be  gone 
for  ever. 

Misinterpreting  the  composure  of  Colonel  Goring's 
manner,  and  supposing  that  he  was  yielding  to  the 
agent's  interference,  Morty  tore  oft^  his  glove.  "  Let 
me  quicken  your  resolution,"  he  said,  and  he  flung  it 
in  his  antagonist's  face. 

Goring  caught  the  glove  in  his  left  hand,  and  tossed 
it  gently  back. 

"  It  shall  be  as  you  please.  Captain  O'Sullivan,"  he 
said,  "  and  no  time  can  be  better  than  the  present. 
Macfinnan  will  lend  us  his  father's  pistols.  They 
have  done  duty  on  similar  occasions,  and  may  serve 
for  this.  Gentlemen,"  he  said  to  Herbert  and  Crosbie, 
"  you  will  kindly  act  for  me  on  this  occasion.  See  the 
pistols  loaded  and  the  ground  measured." 

Never  had  there  been  such  wild  delight  in  the 
domain  at  Derreen,  as  was  expressed  by  the  crowd 
now  assembled  there,  at  the  news  that  there  was  to 
be  a  duel.  What  bull-fighting  is  in  Spain,  what 
prize-fighting  has  been  in  England,  that  duelling  was 
in  the  last  century  in  the  sister  Island.  It  was  the 
passion  and  delight  of  all  orders,  high  and  low.  Men 
fought  for  something  or  for  nothing,  for  honour,  for 
revenge,  or  for  the  mere  enjoyment  of  the  sensation. 
They  met,  not  in  glens  or  woods,  or  solitary  glades, 
but  in  the  most  public  places  which  they  could  find, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  145 

under  the  world's  eye,  where  every  one  who  pleased 
might  attend.  On  the  present  occasion  the  flavour 
was  the  more  exciting  because  the  fight  was  to  be  on 
the  old-established  lines  of  quarrel  between  England 
and  Ireland.  Goring  was  the  representative  of  the 
Conquest  and  of  English  authority.  Morty  Sullivan 
was  a  Southern  Celt  of  purest  breed,  the  lawful 
heir  of  Dunboy,  if  right  was  done  him,  in  the  eyes  of 
almost  all  of  the  spectators  of  the  scene. 

The  agent's  alarm  that  if  their  captain  fell  the 
privateer's  crew  might  become  ungovernable  was  not 
unfelt  by  Morty  himself.  He  had  no  expectation 
that  the  duel  could  have  any  such  result.  He  could 
split  a  bullet  on  a  pen-knife  with  his  left  hand,  or 
snuff  a  candle  at  twenty  paces  without  extinguishing 
it.  He  intended  to  kill  Goring,  and  was  perfectly 
confident  that  he  was  going  to  do  it.  But  his  honour 
required  that  the  meeting  should  not  be  misrepresented 
to  the  world.  He  would  not  have  it  said  that  he  had 
shot  his  enemy  in  the  midst  of  a  circle  of  his  own 
followers.  And  though  it  was  so  unlikely  as  to  be 
hardly  worth  considering  that  any  accident  could 
happen  to  himself,  he  thought  it  but  fair  and  prudent 
that  they  should  be  removed  out  of  reach  of  tempta- 
tion, in  case  he  should  himself  fall.  *'  De  Chaumont," 
he  said,  calling  the  young  French  officer  who  had 
brought  them  up  through  the  w^ood,  ''  march  your  men 
down  to  the  boats  and  keep  them  there  till  I  join 
you.  Connell  will  stay  with  me.  Gentlemen,"  he 
went  on,  addressing  two  of  the  visitors  who,  as 
experienced  in  such  things,  had  volunteered  to  be  his 
seconds,  "  I  am  in  your  hands.  Twelve  paces,  or  six 
— across  a  handkerchief  if  you  prefer  it  ?  Arrange  as 
you  will,  only  be  quick.     We  are  wasting  time." 

10 


146  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

The  preliminaries  were  soon  adjusted.  Twelve 
paces  was  the  usual  distance,  and  twelve  paces  was  at 
once  agreed  on.  Goring's  seconds  proposed  that  the 
principals  should  fire  together  at  the  signal.  Morty's 
seconds  preferred  that  they  should  fire  consecutively, 
and  toss  for  the  first  shot.  Goring,  to  whom  the 
question  was  referred,  told  them  to  settle  it  as  they 
pleased,  and  it  was  arranged  as  Morty's  friends 
desired.  The  ground  chosen  was  a  level  strip  of  lawn 
under  some  tall  elm  trees  in  front  of  the  windows  of 
the  house.  The  sun,  for  it  was  late  in  the  afternoon, 
had  set  behind  the  wood.  The  air  was  still,  the  light 
shaded  and  even.  The  spectators  fell  back  on  either 
side  and  stood  in  two  rows,  leaving  a  space  clear 
between  them,  open  at  either  end. 

There  was  no  lingering  over  unessential  formalities, 
for  everyone  was  anxious  to  have  the  business  over. 
The  combatants  took  their  places  and  their  seconds 
brought  them  their  pistols.  In  an  Irish  house  the 
duelling-pistols  were  always  in  order,  as  the  honour  of 
the  family  depended  on  them.  Macfinnan  had  cared 
for  his  as  if  they  were  his  choicest  jewels,  and  new  flints 
had  been  fitted  on  the  instant  it  was  known  that  they 
would  be  in  demand.  Morty  Sullivan  snatched  his 
with  passionate  eagerness.  Goring  seemed  as  little 
di'sturbed  as  if  he  were  at  a  shooting  match.  He  took 
no  notice  of  his  antagonist,  but  examined  his  weapon 
with  much  deliberation.  He  felt  the  spring  of  the 
lock,  glanced  at  the  rifling  of  the  barrel,  and  then, 
having  apparently  satisfied  himself,  waited  for  the 
result  of  the  toss. 

It  fell  to  Morty.  He  was  to  fire  first  and  at  his 
own  time  after  the  handkerchief  was  dropped.  The 
.signal  was  given.     He  paused  a  second  or  two  raised 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  147 

his  pistol,  took  deliberate  aim,  and  then  let  fall  his 
arm  again,  and  scanned  his  enemy's  body  as  if  con- 
sidering where  he  could  hit  him  with  most  certainty 
of  fatal  effect.  Then  he  raised  it  again  with  a  vicious 
smile  on  his  lips.  His  eye  fixed  ;  his  arm  stiffened 
and  became  rigid  as  the  stock  of  a  crossbow.  He 
drew  the  trigger,  the  hammer  fell  and  the  pistol 
missed  fire. 

Angrily  he  cocked  it  again,  again  pulled,  this  time 
without  waiting,  and  again  there  was  no  result. 

"  There  is  something  the  matter  with  your  flint, 
sir,"  said  Goring  coolly.  "  You  had  better  let  it  be 
looked  to." 

With  an  angry  flush  on  his  cheek  Morty  flung  his 
weapon  to  his  nearest  second,  who  readjusted  the 
flint  and  returned  it  to  him. 

He  fired  instantly,  but  Goring's  calmness  had  dis- 
turbed his  nerve.  His  arm  shook.  The  ball,  which 
was  intended  for  his  antagonist's  brain,  passed  through 
his  hat,  cutting  away  a  hair  or  two  on  the  way,  and 
left  him  untouched. 

It  was  now  Goring's  turn.  With  the  same  com- 
posure as  before  he  again  examined  his  pistol,  as  if  to 
assure  himself  that  he  could  depend  upon  it.  He 
then,  for  the  first  time  since  they  had  taken  their 
places,  looked  steadily  into  Morty's  face. 

"  Captain  O'Sullivan,"  he  said,  "  you  required  the 
satisfaction  of  shooting  at  me,  and  you  have  had  it. 
It  is  not  your  fault  that  you  missed  me,  for  you  were 
deliberate  enough.  I  might  now  save  the  hangman 
trouble.  But  your  life  is  forfeited  ;  it  belongs  to  your 
country,  and  to  your  country  I  shall  leave  you.  Fire 
at  you  in  return,  I  shall  not ;  but  that  you  may  know 
and  that  all  here  may  know  that  your  life  is  mine  at 

10* 


148  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

this  moment  if  I  please  to  take  it,  do  you  see  yonder 
bough  at  the  top  of  the  furthest  elm,  with  a  single 
yellow  leaf  at  its  extremity  ?     Mark  that  leaf." 

He,  in  turn,  raised  his  arm  and  glanced  swiftly 
along  the  barrel  ;  a  flash,  a  shot,  and  the  leaf,  cut  off 
at  the  stem  by  the  ball,  slowly  fluttered  to  the  ground. 

"  Give  us  other  pistols.  Load  again,"  cried  Morty 
furiously  :  but  even  the  Irish  crowd  who  would  have 
been  well  pleased  to  see  Goring  fall,  could  not  refuse 
their  admiration  for  his  courage,  his  forbearance  and 
his  skill  ;  there  was  a  cry  that  enough  had  been 
done ;  the  seconds  on  both  sides  interposed  ;  they 
declared  the  affair  was  over  and  could  go  no  further. 


CHAPTER  XH. 

The  story  must  recede  for  a  few  months  to  explain  how 
Morty  Sullivan  came  to  be  present  with  the  Dotitelle 
at  Kilmakilloge  on  the  occasion  of  his  kinsman's 
funeral.  The  story  which  he  had  heard  at  Nantes 
from  Sylvester  had  overcome  his  reluctance  to  accept 
Mr.  Blake's  proposal.  He  was  indignant  at  the 
threat  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Sullivans,  at  the  out- 
rage which  had  been  inflicted  on  his  own  family,  and 
especially  at  the  English  intruder  who  was  the 
occasion  of  it  all,  who  once  already  had  crossed  his  path, 
and  was  in  possession  of  his  own  castle.  He  agreed 
to  take  the  vessel  which  he  was  offered,  and  to  do  all 
the  injury  with  her  which  he  could  to  the  ancient 
enemy.  In  the  course  of  it  he  would  make  an 
opportunity  of  revenging  his  own  wrongs  upon  his 
personal  foe  on  the  coast  of  Ireland.  One  stipulation 
only  he  insisted  on.  He  would  not  allow  his  name  to 
be  stained  with  the  reproach  of  being  a  pirate.     He 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  149 

required  a  commission  as  a  privateer  from  the  French 
Government,  and  the  authorities,  though  willing  that 
he  should  have  it,  made  delays  till  their  own  prepara- 
tions for  war  were  further  advanced.  Morty  employed 
the  interval  in  making  expeditions  in  other  vessels  to 
various  parts  of  the  three  southern  Irish  provinces  to 
see  into  the  progress  of  disaffection  there,  ascertain  how 
far  the  people  could  be  trusted  to  rise  if  French 
troops  were  landed  to  help  them,  and  to  introduce  arms 
where  they  were  likely  to  be  useful.  He  travelled, 
disguised,  through  Cork  and  Tipperary,  Limerick  and 
Galway,  and  his  impressions  were  not  encouraging. 
There  was  talk  in  abundance,  but  small  promise  of 
real  performance.  Every  requisite  for  a  successful  in- 
insurrection  was  wanting,  except  hatred  of  the  old 
oppressors. 

On  the  other  hand  he  found  in  the  smuggling  trade 
a  ready-made  organization  to  keep  the  counties 
along  the  coast  unquiet,  and  to  prevent  England  from 
establishing  any  orderly  rule  in  them.  From  Dingle 
to  Crookhaven  the  native  population  were  always 
ready  for  any  desperate  enterprise.  On  the  Kenmare 
River  he  found  a  spirit  which  needed  but  slight  help 
and  encouragement  if  not  to  drive  his  enemy  from 
Dunboy,  at  least  to  make  impossible  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  scheme  of  Lord  Shelbourne,  should  it  ever 
be  in  earnest  attempted.  In  this  way  Morty  Sullivan 
had  spent  the  winter  and  spring  which  succeeded  our 
first  introduction  to  him.  In  the  early  summer  came 
the  news  that  two  French  frigates  had  been  taken  by 
the  English  off  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Even  so  war  was  not  instantly  declared,  but  there  was 
no  longer  any  reason  for  preventing  French  subj^^rts 
from  retaliating.     The  Privateers  were  allowed  to  go 


I50  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

out  and  revenge  themselves  on  English  commerce. 
Morty  Sullivan  among  them  received  the  commission 
which  he  had  asked  for.  It  would  not  save  him 
should  he  be  captured  by  an  enemy's  cruiser,  for  he 
was  an  English  subject,  who  would  be  found  in  arms 
against  his  Sovereign.  But  he  could  send  his  prizes 
into  French  ports,  he  would  not  suffer  as  a  gentleman 
in  his  own  estimation  of  himself,  and  he  was  willing 
to  run  the  risk  of  the  rest. 

As  the  summer  was  coming  to  an  end,  Blake  sent 
him  out  of  the  River  with  a  crew,  part  reputable  sea- 
men, part  birds  of  prey  of  the  ocean,  trained  in 
plunder  and  bloodshed.  The  Doiitelles  sailing  powers 
were  all  that  her  owner  had  promised.  No  privateer 
ever  sailed  from  Nantes  with  so  powerful  an  arma- 
ment. She  carried  nine  guns  on  a  side.  To  match 
the  peculiarity  of  her  rig,  Morty  had  provided  her 
with  a  long  twelve-pounder,  with  exceptional  range, 
which  he  had  designed  himself  and  which  Blake  had 
cast  for  him. 

In  the  first  few  days  that  he  was  out  in  the 
mouth  of  the  Channel  he  had  sent  half  a  dozen 
prizes  into  Brest.  The  report  that  he  had  plundered 
a  ship  that  was  carrying  specie  to  America,  was  only 
short  of  the  truth.  He  had  not  only  taken  the 
money,  but  he  had  sunk  the  vessel,  putting  her  crew 
on  board  a  passing  brig.  After  fluttering  the  dove- 
cotes to  such  purpose,  and  having  been  twice  chased 
in  vain  by  a  frigate  and  a  corvette,  he  had  borne 
away  for  the  South  of  Ireland.  His  business  there 
was  short,  but  important.  He  had  a  thousand 
muskets,  cases  of  pistols,  and  thirty  barrels  of  gun- 
powder which  he  intended  to  land  in  Kilmakilloge  to 
arm  the    peasantry  of  the   district,   who    had    been 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  151 


already  drilled  to  be  able  to  use  them.  This  accom- 
plished he  was  then  going  off  to  the  West  Indies  for 
a  campaign  among  the  English  sugar  Islands. 

It  was  by  mere  accident  that  his  arrival  was  coinci- 
dent with  his  kinsman's  death.  He  had  anchored  the 
night  before  the  funeral.  He  had  intended  to  lie 
quietly  there  for  a  day  or  two,  and  dispose  of  his 
cargo.  Circumstances  had  given  his  appearance  a 
new  character,  and   might   oblige  him  to   make  new 


arrangements. 


The  scene  which  had  taken  place  at  Derreen  was 
so  little  an  exception  to  the  common  incidents  of 
Irish  life,  that  it  would  have  passed  as  an  ordinary 
occurrence,  but  for  Morty  Sullivan's  appearance  in  the 
Doutelle,  and  the  audacious  language  in  which  he  had 
boasted  of  his  position  and  his  character.  The 
authorities  in  Dublin  Castle  desired  to  hear  as  little 
as  they  could  help  of  local  irregularities  in  the  remote 
counties  of  Ireland,  nor  would  there  have  been  reason 
to  fear  that  in  the  present  case  they  would  shew 
more  curiosity  had  it  not  been  for  the  critical  relations 
at  the  moment  between  the  Courts  of  St.  James's  and 
Versailles. 

The  presence  on  the  coast,  however,  of  an  avowed 
pirate  and  outlaw  might  attract  inconvenient  attention, 
unless  it  could  be  in  some  degree  extenuated.  The 
agent  might  find  himself  in  trouble  if  he  could  not  an- 
ticipate the  accounts  of  others.  He  therefore  hastened 
back  to  Kenmare  to  prepare  and  send  off  a  report  on 
the  instant.  He  could  feel  easy  that  Goring,  being  of 
a  free  and  noble  nature,  would  not  colour  the  matter 
favourably  for  himself  He  could  give  his  own 
version  with  the  more  confidence,  as  he  could  be 
assured   that  what  he  would   say  would  be  what  the 


152  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

Castle  would  most  wish  to  hear.  "  An  incident,"  he  said, 
"  had  occurred  at  a  place  on  Lord  Shelbourne's  estate 
of  no  serious  consequence,  but  which  he  thought  he 
ought  to  mention.  A  gentleman  of  ancient  family,  a 
tenant  on  the  property,  had  died,  and  the  funeral  had 
been  largely  attended.  A  vessel  under  French 
colours  had  put  into  the  harbour  for  the  occasion. 
The  commander  was  a  relative  of  the  deceased,  and 
his  object  in  coming  in  had  been  merely  to  pay 
respect  to  his  kinsman.  Colonel  Goring,  of  Dun- 
boy,  happened  to  be  present,  and  it  appeared  that 
the  Captain  of  the  vessel  and  Colonel  Goring  had 
met  previously  under  unpleasant  circumstances- 
They  recognised  each  other  on  the  grounds.  They 
quarrelled,  and  in  spite  of  his  own  efforts  to  keep 
the  peace,  they  had  exchanged  shots  in  a  duel.  But 
no  harm  had  come  of  it.  The  French  vessel  had  no 
other  business  on  the  coast,  and  had  departed  already 
or  would  depart  immediately.  He  had  thought  of 
detaining  her,  and  of  arresting  the  officers,  but  he  had 
an  insufficient  force  with  him,  and  an  attempt  at 
capture  would  have  been  probably  ineffectual,  and 
would  have  led  to  serious  bloodshed." 

So  wrote  Lord  Shelbourne's  agent,  according  to  the 
ashion  of  the  time. 

Morty  Sullivan  was  equally  impatient  to  be  gone. 
He  was  savage  with  the  accident  which  had  robbed 
him  of  his  revenge  ;  savage  with  himself  for  having 
lost  his  nerve  and  having  failed  to  repair  it ;  savage 
above  all  with  the  man  who  had  crossed  his  path  so 
often,  and  always  to  get  the  better  of  him,  and  had 
now  insulted  him  with  his  contempt.  His  oppor- 
tunity might  come  again,  but  it  was  gone  for  the 
moment.      He   was   certain    that   if  Gorini^:  was  not 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  153 

stopped  on  his  way  home  to  Dunboy,  a  courier 
would  be  on  the  way  in  a  few  hours  to  the 
Admiral  at  Cork,  and  that  in  a  day  or  two  a 
frigate  of  King  George's  would  be  looking  for  him. 
He  had  the  cargo  of  arms  to  put  on  shore,  but  an 
attempt  to  land  them  at  Kilmakilloge  in  the  midst  of 
so  much  excitement  and  such  a  concourse  of  people, 
would  be  a  public  act  of  defiance,  and  might  provoke 
and  even  cause  a  military  occupation  of  the  district. 
He  decided  therefore  to  land  the  chests  two  nights 
later  at  a  spot  at  Glengariff,  familiar  to  the  local 
smugglers,  to  leave  de  Chaumont  on  shore  to  arrange 
for  the  reception  and  distribution  of  them,  and  himself 
meanwhile  to  stand  off  to  the  open  sea  as  if  finally 
taking  his  departure  from  the  coast. 

The  festivities  at  Derreen  were  thus  over  at  an 
early  hour.  The  chief  guests  having  taken  their  leave, 
the  rest  broke  up  before  nightfall  and  went  to  their 
various  homes,  the  wild  cries  from  the  scattered  or 
scattering  parties  echoing  among  the  glens  in  the 
twilight. 

Leaving  the  others  to  go  their  way,  the  reader's 
attention  will  be  expressly  fixed  on  Colonel  Goring. 

The  friends  with  whom  he  had  ridden  down  had 
left  him.  He  had  to  make  his  way  to  Dun- 
boy  alone,  and  he  felt  that  he  could  not  be  too 
quick  about  it.  Of  his  encounter  with  Morty,  so 
far  as  he  had  been  himself  in  peril,  he  thought  no 
more  than  if  his  horse  had  fallen,  or  if  he  had  met 
with  any  other  accident  from  which  no  ill  had 
followed.  But  of  the  Doutelle  and  of  Morty's 
presence  on  the  coast  he  thought  much  and  long. 
He  must  send  instant  notice  to  headquarters,  and  he 
must  prepare  his  own   station   for  a  possible  attack. 


154  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

His  disappointment  about  the  Kilmakilloge colony  was, 
of  course,  deep  ;  but  it  was  irreparable,  and,  therefore, 
not  to  be  thought  of  any  longer.  The  failure  was 
not  due  to  any  negligence  on  his  part.  He  had  done 
his  best,  and  if  he  was  to  find  no  help,  very  well,  he 
must  do  without  it,  and  trust  to  himself  and  to  his 
Master.  At  all  events,  the  Government  could  no  longer 
neglect  so  dangerous  a  visitor  as  Morty  Sullivan. 

There  were  two  roads  from  Tuosist  to  Dunbo\', 
one  a  horse  track,  long  and  circuitous,  by  Ardgroom 
and  Eyris,  the  other  a  foot  track  up  the  hollow  of 
Glanmore,  and  thence  direct  over  the  mountains. 
This  was  the  nearest  way  by  several  miles  ;  but  the 
whole  country  side  had  been  set  in  motion  by  the 
funeral  ;  many  hundreds  of  people  who  had  come 
from  the  side  of  Bantry  Bay  would  be  going  home  by 
this  route ;  the  O'Sullivans,  who  would  be  the  largest 
part,  bore  Goring  no  good-will  at  any  time,  and 
would  be  in  worse  temper  with  him  than  ever  after 
his  treatmeant  of  their  chief.  Brave  as  he  was, 
he  did  not  care  to  expose  himself  unnecessarily. 
He  decided  that  he  would  take  the  longest  road, 
where  he  would  least  be  looked  for,  but  that  he  would 
leave  his  horse  with  a  farmer  whom  he  could  depend 
upon,  and  would  trust  to  his  feet.  He  would  thus  be 
less  liable  to  observation,  and  if  attacked  he  could 
take  to  the  mountains.- 

The  day  closed  before  he  had  disposed  of  his 
steed  and  had  finished  a  hasty  dinner  on  rye  bread 
with  a  slice  of  salmon  from  the  river.  The  evening 
was  still  warm  and  starlight.  The  moon  would  rise 
at  midnight,  but  he  hoped  to  have  reached  his  home 
by  that  time,  and  so  not  to  need  it.  He  set  out 
briskly.     The  road  for  the   first   two   miles   led   along 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  155 


the  shore  of  the  harbour.  As  he  passed  the  mouth, 
he  saw  the  white  sails  of  the  Dotttelle  as  she 
drifted  down  the  river  with  the  tide.  The  boats  had 
vanished,  only  far  off  could  be  heard  the  faint  splash 
of  oars,  or  voices  calling  across  the  water.  When  he 
had  walked  sharply  for  half-an-hour,  the  road  struck 
inland,  on  a  spur  of  the  great  mountain  range  which 
divides  Glanmore  from  Ardgroom.  In  the  entire 
solitude,  and  in  the  absence  of  any  sign  of  other 
travellers  besides  himself  being  abroad,  his  pace 
gradually  slackened,  and  his  thoughts  wandered 
through  the  incidents  of  the  afternoon  to  the 
condition  of  a  country  where  such  incidents  were 
possible.  Here  had  been  an  assembly  of  gentlemen 
of  the  county,  the  representatives  of  English 
authority,  collected  together.  An  outlawed  rebel 
had  appeared  in  the  middle  of  them,  and  instead 
of  any  attempt  being  made  to  arrest  the  man,  he 
had  himself  been  compelled,  by  popular  sentiment, 
under  penalty  of  forfeiting  the  esteem  of  his  neigh- 
bours, to  stand  out  and  let  the  fellow  shoot  at  him. 
So  absurd  it  was  that  he  laughed  aloud  at  the 
thought  of  it.  Even  when  he  examined  his  own 
part  in  the  transaction,  he  could  not  blame  himself 
for  having  encountered  the  risk  of  being  killed,  or 
see  how  he  could  have  acted  otherwise.  What  sort  of 
a  country  could  it  be  where  wrong  was  right,  and  evil 
good,  and  unreason  reason  ?  What  extraordinary 
destiny  condemned  to  failure  every  effort  that  was 
made  to  improve  it  ? 

The  sun  never  shone  upon  a  land  more  beautiful  than 
Ireland  as  Nature  made  it.  It  had  possibilities  of  un- 
bounded fertility  if  human  industry  and  human  sense 
would  do  as  much  for  it  as  had  been  done  for  the  most 


156  THE   TWO   ClflEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


neglected  corner  in  any  other  country  in  Europe. 
The  people  were  passionate  and  emotional,  capable  of 
devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  loyal  and  affectionate  to 
anyone  who  would  lead  them  and  care  for  them.  But 
the  soil  was  a  desert,  and  some  subtle  poison  had 
corrupted  the  character  of  the  race.  The  Island  was 
like  a  sleeping  volcano,  out  of  which  at  times,  as  if 
to  give  notice  of  what  lay  below,  would  spurt  out 
crimes  beyond  the  ordinary  possibilities  of  wicked- 
ness. Holy  men  had  lived  and  died  among  them — 
had  been  respected  and  honoured,  and  shrines  and 
churches  had  risen  above  the  spots  where  they  were 
laid  to  rest.  But  the  churches  were  roofless,  and  the 
shrines  were  desecrated.  The  bells  were  silent  which 
had  once  pealed  over  lake  and  valley,  calling  the 
peasantry  to  prayer.  The  abbeys,  lonely  in  their 
desolation,  pleaded  to  men  and  angels  against  the 
hand  which  had  profaned  them.  English  rule  had 
done  it  all,  so  said  the  priests.  But  it  was  not  so,  for 
their  own  annals,  written  by  themselves,  before  the 
strangers  had  come  among  them,  told  of  reiving  and 
bloodshedding  as  their  only  occupation  and  their 
only  glory.  Those  sacred  buildings  might  speak  for 
their  piety,  but  it  was  not  the  piety  of  a  religion  of 
peace.  The  annalists  were  monks  themselves,  and 
the  religious  houses  had  been  but  harbours  of  refuge 
in  a  storm  which  had  never  ceased  to  rage. 

What  did  it  all  mean  ?  Why,  after  six  hundred 
years  of  Saxon  rule,  did  the  Irish  race  remain  essen- 
tially unchanged  ?  If  England  was  not  guilty  of 
their  disorders,  she  had  not  found  the  spell  which 
would  cure  them. 

Beside  the  road  as  Goring  walked  rose  the 
monuments  of   a  time  of   which    the    legends    even 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOW  157 

of  the  Tuatha  de  Danans,  had  not  preserved  so  much 
as  an  oiitUne.  Huge  upright  stones  marked  the  spots 
where  Celtic  chief,  or  Druid,  or  Danish  pirates  lay 
sleeping,  but  no  one  could  say  which  it  was.  Some 
hand  or  other  had  piled  the  mounds  where,  if  }'ou 
tunnelled,  you  found  caves  littered  with  bones,  gnawed 
by  creatures  which  had  borne,  at  least,  a  human  form, 
but  who  were  they,  and  whence  had  they  come  ? 

Apostles  had  come  and  preached  Christianity 
among  these  beings.  They  were  said  to  have 
transformed  them  for  a  time  into  a  nobler  type. 
Ireland,  it  was  alleged,  had  become  an  Island  of 
Saints.  She  had  sent  missionaries  over  Europe,  and 
when  the  Pagans  overran  the  Roman  world  and 
buried  it  in  Heathendom  again,  the  Gospel  light  had 
burnt  clear  and  white  in  this  wild.  Western  land.  So 
the  priests  pretended  ;  and  yet  the  annals  told  the 
same  story.  Neither  then,  nor  at  any  time,  had  the 
Irish  chiefs  and  their  followers  been  other  than 
wolves,  devouring  one  another  when  no  sheep  were 
left  for  them  to  devour.  Their  very  saints,  their 
Patrick,  their  Bridget,  their  Columba,  loomed  through 
the  fog  of  tradition  as  shadowy  as  the  giants  of 
Ossian.  You  could  make  nothing  of  them.  Their 
so-called  lives  were  as  full  of  wonders  as  the  tales  of 
the  Knights  Errant.  The  Irish  had  disowned  the 
facts  of  life,  and  the  facts  of  life  had  proved  the 
strongest.  "  Unstable  as  water,"  they  had  never  been 
able  to  build  together  any  solid  and  stable  existence. 

The  English  came.  The  English  were  growing 
into  a  powerful  nation,  and  the  Irish  anarchy  was  not 
to  be  tolerated  so  close  to  their  own  shores.  They 
consulted  the  Pope.  The  Pope  gave  them  leave  to 
interfere,  and   the  Pope  had   the  best  of  the  bargain. 


ISS  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

For  the  English  brought  him  in,  and  the  Irish  took 
him  to  their  hearts  and  kept  him  there.  But  the  rest 
of  their  work  was  as  a  sand-heap  for  the  wind  to  scatter. 
They  conquered  the  land.  They  gave  it  to  Norman 
nobles  to  rule,  and  the  Norman  nobles  ruled  in  the 
manner  that  was  easiest  to  them.  Instead  of  intro- 
ducing English  laws  and  English  habits  they  adopted 
Irish  laws  and  Irish  habits,  and  became  fresh  thorns 
in  England's  side.  It  was  open  to  her  then  to  have 
used  her  power  to  compel  submission,  as  the  Planta- 
eenet  Princes  had  done  in  Wales,  or  else  to  abandon 
an  enterprise  altogether  in  which  she  could  succeed 
only  by  means  which  she  did  not  care  to  employ. 
She  did  neither.  To  abandon  Ireland  would  be  dis- 
creditable, to  rule  it  as  a  province  would  be  contrary 
to  English  traditions. 

After  spasmodic  efforts,  never  sustained  and  there- 
fore never  effectual,  she  tried  to  rule  by  dividing.  She 
set  bear  and  bandog  to  tear  each  other.  She  tried  at- 
tainders and  confiscations.  She  had  brought  in  the 
Pope  for  her  own  purposes.  When  she  and  the  Pope 
quarrelled  she  tried  to  turn  him  out,  and  she  set  up  an 
Act  of  Parliament  Church  of  her  own.  But  the  Pope 
remained  in  spite  of  her,  and  the  Act  of  Parliament 
Church  made  no  converts. 

She  discovered  at  last  that  if  Ireland  v/as  ever  to  be 
heartily  united  to  her  it  could  only  be  when  a  fresh 
population  was  introduced  into  it  of  the  same  race 
and  the  same  religion  as  her  own.  The  new  policy  was 
carried  out.  PLlizabeth  first  and  then  James  and  then 
Cromwell  replanted  the  Island,  introducing  English, 
Scots,  Hugonots,  Flemings,  Dutch,  tens  of  thousands 
of  families  of  vigorous  and  earnest  Protestants,  who 
brou^jht  their  industries  alon^r  with  them.     Twice   the 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUX  BOY.  159 

Irish  had   tried   desperately  and  furiously  to   destroy 
or  drive  out  this   new  element,  which,  if  allo^\■ed   to 
remain  and  thrive  must   assert   its   native  superiority 
and  compel  them  to  change  their  ways.     They  failed. 
When    the   last    rebellion   was   crushed,    Ireland   was 
a    sheet    of    paper    on    which    England    might    have 
written  what  character  she  pleased.     Like   a  wanton 
child  with  a  toy,  she  had  no  sooner  accomplished   her 
long    task    than    she   set  herself  to  work   to   spoil   it 
again.     She  destroyed  the  industries  of  her   colonists 
by  her  trade  laws.     She  set  the  Bishops  to   rob  them 
of    their    religion.       Indignant    and     disgusted,    the 
fighting    Protestants,   those    who  had  conquered    the 
country    for    her,    withdrew    in    disgust    beyond    the 
Atlantic.      The    Anglican   gentry  and    the  Anglican 
Established  Church  were  left    to  rule    as   they  could 
without   them,   with  the  help  of  a  penal    law  ^\■hich 
they  dared  not  execute   for  shame.     The  Established 
Church  was  a  cynical  farce.    The  Irish  of  the  old  breed, 
who  had  been  thrown  to  the  ground,  were  recovering 
again   like  Antaeus.     Popery  was  again   upon  its  feet, 
and  the   people  were  gathering  about   the  feet  of  it. 
Goring  himself  could  not  blame  them,  for  they  could 
not  see  their  children  grow  up   Atheists,    while    the 
gentry,    following    accurately    in    the    steps     of    the 
Normans,  were  becoming  the    world's    bye-word    by 
the  recklessness  of  their  lives.     The  purpose  for  which 
they  had  been  introduced  into  Ireland  was  unfulfilled. 
They  were  but  alien   intruders,  who  did    nothing,  who 
were  allowed   to  do   nothing.     The  time  would  come 
when  an  exasperated  population  would  demand  that  the 
land  should  be  given  back  to  them,  and  England  would 
then,  perhaps,  throw  the  gentry  to  the  wolves,  in  the 
hope  of  a  momentary  peace.    But  her  own  turn  would 


[6o  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


follow.  She  would  be  face  to  face  with  the  old 
problem,  either  to  make  a  new  conquest  or  to  retire 
with  disgrace.  She  had  wilfully  neglected  every  duty 
which  a  ruling  nation  owes  to  subjects  whom,  for  its 
own  purposes,  it  has  robbed  of  independence.  The 
proudest  power  cannot  for  ever  defy  nature  with 
impunity,  and  Goring  found  himself  repeating  the 
reflections  which  the  sight  of  the  devastated  plains 
had  forced  upon  Edmund  Spenser.  It  could  not  be 
but  that,  one  da}',  a  great  humiliation  would  befall 
England  for  the  heedless  indifference  with  which  she 
had  treated  that  unhappy  country. 

Colonel  Goring's  reflections  may  have  been  coloured 
by  his  own  treatment,  but  the  constitution  of  his 
mind  never  allowed  him  to  despond.  He  looked  on 
the  world  as  a  temporary  arena  where  men  were  sent 
to  be  disciplined  by  difflculties.  Whether  they  were  to 
succeed  in  overcoming  them  was  a  secondary  question, 
the  answer  to  which  did  not  rest  with  themselves. 
They  were  to  discover  what  their  duty  was  with  the 
lights  which  had  been  given  them,  and  then  try  to  do 
it.  A  higher  Power  would  see  to  the  result.  He, 
himself,  would  struggle  on  at  Dunboy,  assisted  or 
unassisted,  as  long  as  he  could  hold  his  ground,  and 
his  immediate  business  would  be  to  despatch  a  courier 
at  daybreak,  to  Cork,  with  an  account  of  the  Doutelle 
and  her  commander. 

Thus  meditating,  he  had  ascended  a  steep  slope  on 
the  side  of  the  mountain,  and  had  come  out  upon  a 
stretch  of  level  ground,  through  the  centre  of  which  the 
road  ran  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  then  descended  into 
the  valley  beyond.  On  his  left  rose  a  precipitous  wall 
of  rocks  which,  in  the  gathering  darkness,  for  clouds 
had  spread  on  the  sky,  seem.ed  as  if  they  would  defy 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  i6i 


the  skilfullest  climber  to  scale.  On  the  right  was  a  wide 
and  treacherous  peat-moss,  which,  even  in  daylight,  it 
was  unsafe  to  cross.  In  the  distance  was  the  pale 
glimmer  of  the  sea,  where  the  stars  were  still  shining, 
and  directly  in  the  middle  of  the  open  space  before 
him,  showing  black  against  the  background  of  water 
and  sky,  were  three  massive  stones,  one  upright,  one 
leaning  against  it,  and  a  third  lying  on  the  ground. 
They  marked  the  spot  where  tradition  said  some  old 
King  of  Kerry  had  fought  his  last  battle,  won  his  last 
victory,  and  had  there  been  laid  in  the  grave.  Few 
persons  cared  to  pass  that  way  after  nightfall  ;  for  in 
those  days  elf  and  fairy  had  not  yet  taken  their  leave, 
and  the  waywardest  of  these  tricksey  spirits  held 
midnight  revels  at  the  warrior's  tomb.  Goring,  who, 
though  he  did  not  disbelieve  in  such  apparitions,  was 
constitutionally  careless  of  such  things,  let  his  medita- 
tions run  on  upon  the  line  which  they  had  been 
following,  and  had  paused  to  contemplate  a  monu- 
ment which  so  intimately  fitted  in  with  them,  when  he 
saw  distinctly  some  dark  object  move  behind  the 
headstone. 

He  thought  at  first  that  he  had  disturbed  a  sheep 
from  its  night's  lodging.  Looking  more  attentivel}', 
he  perceived  it  was  a  human  figure  in  a  woman's 
cloak,  which  was  crouching  on  the  ground. 

Cool  as  he  was  he  could  not  resist  an  involuntary 
start.  The  loneliness  of  the  spot,  the  wild  tales  that 
had  been  told  about  it,  the  extreme  improbability 
that  any  mortal  woman,  young  or  old,  could  be  sitting 
there  at  such  an  hour,  shook  his  nerves,  as  they  might 
have  shaken  any  man's. 

As  the  figure  rose  to  its  feet,  however,  he  saw 
plainly  that  it  had  the  semblance  of  a  woman,   and  a 

II 


i62  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


woman  of  flesh  and  blood,  dressed  in  the  grey  cloak 
of  the  country,  and  with  the  hood  drawn  over  its 
head.  In  the  faint  light  he  made  out  a  face  and  eyes, 
but  whether  the  apparition  was  old  or  young,  or  a 
tangible  reality  at  all,  he  could  not  satisfy  himself 
He  was  about  to  question  her,  when,  putting  her 
fingers  to  her  lips,  she  said  in  a  low  voice,  which  he 
thought  he  had  heard  before  : 

"  For  the  Lord's  sake,  Colonel,  go  no  further  down 
the  road  this  night  ;  ye  were  watched  from  Tuosist ! 
There  is  a  party  of  the  SulHvans  got  the  start  of  \'c 
in  a  boat,  and  they  lie  waiting  for  ye  at  the  foot  of 
the  hill  !  They  swear  they  will  have  your  life  for 
what  ye  done  and  said  to  Morty  Oge  this  day  ! 
They  are  beyont,  at  the  turn  of  the  hill.  Speak  low, 
or  they'll  hear  ye  !  " 

"  And  who  may  you  be,  my  good  woman  ? "  said 
Goring,  "  that  you  are  here  in  this  solitary  place  and 
at  such  a  time  ?  " 

"  It  is  Mary  Moriarty,  from  Glenbeg,  that  I  am, 
your  honour.  Your  honour  will  mind  my  father  that 
had  the  hunger  fever  upon  him  last  year,  and  was 
like  to  die,  and  your  honour  gave  us  help  that  day 
and  bought  the  lase  of  the  land,  and  saved  the  both 
of  us,  the  Lord  reward  ye  for  it !  I  was  at  Derreen 
at  the  burying,  and  there  \\'as  a  dance  after  at  the 
shebeen  house  at  the  river  side,  and  I  heard  the  boys 
talking  about  your  honour,  and  how  ye  would  never 
see  Dunboy  again.  Sorra  be  to  me  if  I  could  hear 
that  harm  was  purposed  to  a  gentleman  that  had 
saved  my  father's  life  for  him,  and  I  not  give  him 
notice  of  it  any  way  !  I  knew  the  roatl  }^e  would  be 
going,  so  I  watched  the  bo}\s  into  the  boat  and  I  ran 
by  the  short  way  that  is  over  the  hill  ! " 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY.  163 

"  You  are  a  good,  brave  girl !  "  said  the  Colonel. 
"  What  I  did  for  old  Moriarty  was  no  more  than  one 
Christian  owes  to  another,  and  he  had  been  hardly- 
dealt  with.  But  this  is  no  place  for  a  young  maiden 
to  be  abroad  in  at  this  hour,  when  such  wild  lads  are 
about  as  those  you  tell  me  of  There  is  more  danger 
to  you  than  to  me  !  " 

"  Never  heed  me,  your  honour.  Look  to  yourself, 
or  they  will  be  on  ye,  maybe,  before  \'e  know.  They 
would  never  hurt  a  girl,  bad  as  they  are,  unless  belike 
they  found  I  had  been  spaking  with  your  honour." 

Goring,  as  usual,  had  no  arms  but  a  walking 
stick.  "  Below  the  hill  ?  "  he  said,  "  how  many  of 
them  are  there  ?  " 

"  There  are  ten  or  twelve  at  the  lowest,"  she  said, 
"  let  alone  those  that  may  have  joined  them  on  the 
way !  I  saw  them  from  the  bridge,  as  they  went 
down  to  their  boat.  They  have  guns  with  them, 
worse  luck  !  I'd  bid  ye  take  the  mountain  if  you 
could  reach  it.  There  is  a  sheep  track  up  the  crag, 
but  ye  could  hardly  find  it  in  the  daylight,  let  alone 
in  the    dark  night !  " 

"  I  must  go  back,  then,"  he  said,  "and  take  .the 
other  path  through  Glanmore.  I  have  travelled  that 
way  often  enough." 

"  Ye  can't  travel  by  Glanmore  neither,"  she 
answered,  "for  I  heard  Mr.  Sylvester  telling  the 
Glin  boys  to  be  vv^atching  for  your  honour,  and  it  will 
be  the  Lord's  mercy,  and  no  thanks  to  the  ould 
villain,  if  he  has  not  sent  another  lot  of  them  to  follow 
ye  on  the  way  that  ye  have  come  !  " 

The  Colonel,  though  fearless  of  death,  would  not 
throw  his  life  away  without  an  effort  to  save  it.  He 
was  reflecting  what  he  had  best   do,  when   a   whistle 

II* 


l64  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


from  the  direction  in  which  he  was  going  was 
answered  by  another  from  behind.  The  girl's  con- 
jectures had  been  right.  They  were  between  two  parties 
who  were  advancing  from  opposite  sides,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  would  meet  where  they  were  standing. 

The  morass  was  impassable.  They  would  have 
sunk  in  it  before  they  had  gone  five  steps, 

"  Quick,  quick  !  "  the  girl  said.  "  Trust  yourself  to 
me,  your  honour !  There  is  but  one  way,  but  I  can 
guide  ye,  black  as  the  night  is.  If  it  is  bad  for  us  to 
see  it  will  be  worse  for  them  to  follow.  The  path  up 
the  crag  leads  out  on  to  the  mountains,  and  once 
there  they  would  not  find  ye  if  there  was  a  thousand 
of  them  !  " 

Goring  glanced  doubtfully  in  her  face.  Her  father, 
as  he  knew,  had  once  been  connected  with  the 
smugglers.  Was  it  possible  that  this  girl  could  be  in 
league  with  his  pursuers  ?  But  he  had  gone  through 
life  on  the  principle  of  trusting  those  who  appeared  to 
be  frank  and  honest,  and  over-suspicion  is  as 
dangerous  as  over-confidence 

"  Let  us  go,"  he  said.  "  I  believe  }-ou  are  telling  me 
the  truth.  If  you  are  not,  I  am  sorry  for  you.  But  you 
must  lead  the  way — it  is  as  dark  as  a  wolf's  throat !  " 
"  Quick,  then,"  she  answered.  "  Spake  no  word, 
and  step  as  lightly  as  you  can,  lest  ye  set  the  stones 
rolling." 

The  caution  was  easier  to  give  than  to  observe. 
Her  own  feet  were  bare,  and  she  moved  as  noiselessly 
as  a  cat.  The  Colonel's  shooting  boots  were  nailed 
with  iron  sprigs. 

A  few  yards  of  heather  only  divided  the  road  from 
the  foot  of  the  cliff.  At  a  distance  it  appeared  to 
be    a    continuous    wall.     But    it    was   cracked  in  the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY,  i6c 


middle  at  a  fault— one  side  had  slid  away  from  the 
other,  leaving  a  chasm  between  them  into  which  a 
debi'LS  of  earth  and  rubble  had  fallen  from  above. 
The  grass  had  grown  over  it,  and  there  was  thus  a 
steep,  narrow,  green  slope  running  up  for  seventy 
or  eighty  feet  between  two  walls  of  rock,  which, 
however,  approached  gradually  and  finally  ended 
in  a  chimney  which  could  not  be  ascended.  To  go 
up  the  slope,  therefore,  was  apparently  to  be  shut 
into  a  funnel  from  which  there  was  no  exit. 
The  girl,  however,  made  directly  for  it,  with  the 
speed  of  a  goat.  The  Colonel  followed  with  more 
difficulty,  but  he  was  light  of  foot  and  active,  and 
as  long  as  the  grass  lasted  moved  as  silently  as  his 
guide.  In  three  minutes  they  reached  the  bottom  of 
the  chimney,  and  paused  to  recover  breath.  They 
were  but  just  in  time,  for  as  they  turned  round  they 
could  hear  and  indistinctly  see  that  a  number  of  dark- 
figures  already  surrounded  the  monument,  and  were 
looking  about  them  and  searching  the  ground.  They 
were  sure  that  their  intended  victim  had  been  on  the 
road  between  them.  He  could  not  have  crossed  the 
morass.  He  must  be  somewhere  concealed  under  the 
cliff  They  speedily  found  the  slope  ;  a  very  short 
time  would  have  sufficed  for  them  to  discover  the 
object  of  their  pursuit,  had  the  opening  in  the  rock 
been  the  cul-de-sac  which  it  appeared  to  be.  But 
where  the  slope  ended,  a  horizontal  crack  ran  along 
the  face  of  the  precipice  on  the  western  side.  A 
narrow  shelf  had  been  thus  formed,  six  inches  wide, 
where  the  sheep  crossed  on  their  way  to  the  lower 
ground,  and  where  a  man  could  go  whose  head  was 
steady.  In  daylight  there  was  little  difficulty,  for  the 
dangerous  part  extended  but  for   twenty   feet  or   so. 


i66  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


The  Colonel's  guide  was  familiar  with  the  place,  for 
the  short  cut  went  that  way  from  Glenbeg  to 
Killmakilloge.  Her  acquaintance  with  it  now  saved 
the  Colonel's  life  and  her  own.  The  passage  across 
was  a  mere  ledge.  The  girl  stepped  along  it  without 
hesitation.  The  Colonel  had  to  feel  his  way  with  foot 
and  hand,  but  followed  her  without  accident.  Turn- 
ing a  projecting  point  of  rock  they  found  themselves 
on  a  path  beaten  by  the  sheep,  which  led  out  upon 
the  face  of  the  mountain,  and  there,  with  the  whole 
country  open  before  them,  pursuit  in  the  dark  would  be 
hopeless,  even  if  the  pursuers  could  find  the  way  by 
which  they  had  escaped. 

Here  they  stopped  again,  for  the  Colonel  to  collect 
himself.  As  he  was  leaving  the  cliff  he  displaced  a 
loose  boulder,  which  rolled  over  the  precipice  and  sent 
the  shingle  flying  at  the  foot  of  it.  The  fall  of  the  stone 
betrayed  the  direction  of  the  flight  of  the  fugitives. 
Shots  were  fired  at  points  where  they  might  be  supposed 
to  be,  and  a  dozen  forms  were  seen  scrambling  among 
the  crags,  and  searching  for  the  outlet  from  the  funnel. 
One  perhaps  found  it  and  tried  to  cross,  for  there 
was  a  sound  of  a  heavy  fall,  and  of  a.  shout  for  help. 
Gradually  the  chase  was  abandoned,  and  Colonel 
Goring  and  his  singular  guide  found  themselves  alone 
on  the  hill. 

The  general  character  of  the  range  on  a  spur  of 
which  they  were  standing  is  like  that  of  MacGilli- 
cuddys  Reeks,  over  the  Cpper  Lake  of  Killarne>',  like 
the  Snowdon  Range  in  North  Wales,  and  man}'  simi- 
lar formations.  It  was  as  if  when  the  earth's  crust  was 
hot  and  soft  like  dough,  a  handful  of  it  had  been 
seized  and  pinched  b}'  gigantic  fingers  into  sharp 
ridges,  radiating  like  spokes   from   a  common  centre : 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  167 


while  between  these  ridges  ran  deep  hollow  gorges, 
closed  at  the  top  with  precipices,  and  opening  out  below 
as  the  circumference  extended  into  broad  valleys. 
The  sloping  sides  of  these  gorges  were  covered  with 
loose  stones  or  scattered  patches  of  heather,  and  were 
so  steep  that  in  broad  daylight  the  shepherd  or  the 
grouse  shooter  had  carefully  to  pick  his  way.  Along 
the  edges  the  walking  was  comparatively  easy,  but 
they  were  broken  and  cleft  in  so  many  directions,  and 
the  tracks  left  by  cattle  were  so  misleading,  that  in  the 
night  time,  or  if  clouds  were  on  the  mountains,  a 
stranger  would  inevitably  lose  himself.  On  a  distant 
point  of  the  range  on  which  the  Colonel  stood,  was 
the  cairn  where  the  tithe  proctor  had  been  murdered. 
This  in  a  direct  line  was  seven  miles  off,  and  could  he 
reach  it  he  would  know  where  he  was,  and  could  find 
his  way  home.  But  he  would  have  to  struggle  along 
the  summits  of  the  ridges,  with  the  valley  of  Ard- 
groom  and  Glenbeg  on  one  side  of  him,  of  Glanmore 
on  the  other,  and  of  a  branch  of  Glanmore,  yet 
sterner  and  gloomier,  which  was  called  the  Pocket,  the 
cliffs  at  the  upper  end  of  which  were  almost  perpen- 
dicular. If  the  risk  of  this  route  was  too  great  to  be 
encountered  in  the  dark,  it  was  possible  for  him  to 
make  his  way  back  to  a  lower  point  of  the  road  which 
he  had  left,  with  the  danger  of  being  again  waylaid. 
His  simplest  plan,  had  he  been  at  leisure  and  not 
pressed  for  time,  would  have  been  to  have  dislodged 
a  sheep  from  behind  a  stone  and  have  slept  till  day- 
light, where  the  grass  would  have  become  dry  and 
\\'arm  ;  but  he  was  anxious  to  reach  Dunboy  with 
the  least  possible  delay,  and  he  had  also  to  think 
of  his  companion,  who  had  ventured  her  life  for  him. 
To  be  alone  on  the  mountain  at  night,  with  a  )'oung 


■l68  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


woman,  was  an  equivocal  position  for  both  of  them. 
The  girl  herself  was  so  absolutely  innocent,  that  the 
very  suspicion  that  there  might  be  an  impropriety  in 
such  a  situation  had  evidently  not  occurred  to  her  ; 
nor  was  it  easy  for  Colonel  Goring  to  suggest  such  a 
thing.  But  he  felt  himself  the  more  bound  to  see  that 
she  was  not  exposed  on  his  account  to  the  insolent 
jests  of  scandalous  tongues,  or  to  the  darker  perils  from 
the  vindictiveness  of  the  people,  were  it  known  that 
she  had  prevented  his  assassination.  Her  own  idea 
had  been  to  guide  him  straight  to  her  father's  cabin  at 
Glenbeg,  where  h-e  would  be  on  his  own  soil.  Two 
hours'  walking  would  bring  them  thither.  The  path 
was  but  a  few  yards  from  them,  and  she  had  travelled 
it  a  hundred  times.  He  could  have  his  supper  there 
on  milk  and  porridge,  sleep  on  a  bed  of  heather,  and 
be  off  over  the  mountains  before  sunrise.  The  old 
man  was  now  his  tenant,  and  owed  to  him  all  the 
comforts  which  he  enjoyed.  On  his  secrecy  Goring 
felt  that  he  could  depend.  But  he  remembered,  and 
the  girl  was  forced  to  admit,  that  since  their  condition 
had  been  impro\'ed  they  had  two  farm  serxants  with 
them,  and  who  could  answer  for  the  fidelity  of  these  ? 
Although  the  Moriartys'  connection  with  the  smug- 
glers had  never  been  renewed,  there  were  rumours 
that  strange  faces  were  still  occasionally  seen  at  the 
head  of  the  glen.  How  swift,  sudden  and  terrible,  Irish 
revenge  could  be.  Goring  had  too  good  reason  to 
know  ;  and  the  thought  that  on  his  account  the 
blackened  bodies  of  the  father  and  daughter  might 
be  found  some  morning  amidst  the  ashes  of  their 
home,  surrounded  by  the  maimed  carcases  of  their 
dead  or  dying  cattle,  was  too  dreadful  to  be  en- 
countered. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  169 


To  Glenbeg  he  distinctly  would  not  go,  nor  if  he 
could  help  it  would  he  allow  his  companion  to  remain 
with  him  till  morning,  with  the  chance  of  being  seen 
and  recognised  by  some  shepherd  or  wool-stealer. 

She,  on  the  other  hand,  insisted  that  her  father 
would  put  her  from  the  door,  and  never  take  her 
home  again,  if  she  left  him  to  find  his  way  alone. 
So  another  alternative  suggested  itself  to  him. 

Unacquainted  as  he  was  generally  with  the  Kerry 
side  of  the  range,  circumstances  had  made  him  at  one 
time  painfully  familiar  with  the  gorge  which  was  called 
the  Pocket.  It  was  a  singular  place.  The  bottom  of 
the  valley  joins  Glanmore,  and  is  low  and  level.  A 
mile  and  a  half  above  the  junction,  a  wall  of  rocks 
stretches  across,  six  hundred  feet  high,  over  which  a 
stream  falls  in  a  series  of  cascades.  Above  this  wall 
is  what  perhaps  was  once  a  lake,  but  it  has  been  filled 
in,  and  forms  now  a  smooth  level  meadow,  completely 
shut  in  by  the  mountains.  The  soil  of  the  meadow  is 
and  was  in  Goring's  time  exceptionally  good.  A 
solitary  farm-house  stood  in  the  middle  of  it,  and 
there  was  no  other  human  habitation  within  several 
miles.  Here  had  lived  a  peasant  with  a  wife  and  maid- 
servant, many  cattle,  and  a  few  acres  of  oats  and 
potatoes,  a  man  well-to-do  as  Kerry  then  was,  but  of 
gloomy  and  solitary  habits.  It  happened  that  a  clerk 
from  Goring's  mine  works  absconded,  taking  a  bag  of 
money  with  him.  He  made  his  way  through  the  hills, 
climbed  down  one  night  on  the  precipice,  and,  trusting 
to  the  sympathy  of  the  Irish  mind  with  delinquents  of 
all  kinds,  asked  and  obtained  a  night's  lodging  at  the 
farm.  The  farmer,  tempted  by  the  gold,  killed  him 
while  he  was  sleeping,  and  buried  him  in  a  bog  hole. 
Suspecting  that  he  had  been  seen  by  the  maid-servant, 


70  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


he  threw  her  over  the  waterfall  also,  and  pretended  that 
she  had  fallen  down  by  accident.  The  Irish^  lawless 
though  they  be,  feel  as  much  horror  as  other  people 
at  the  baser  forms  of  crime.  The  murders  were  dis- 
covered ;  the  murderer  was  executed.  Goring  had 
been  several  times  on  the  spot  when  the  bodies  were 
being  searched  for.  He  was  confident  tliat  if  his  com- 
panion would  but  guide  him  as  far  as  the  farm,  which 
had  since  been  deserted,  he  could  thence  make  his 
way  alone. 

The  Pocket,  after  being  the  scene  of  so  horrible  an 
atrocity,  had  naturally  borne  an  evil  name.  Not  only 
did  the  farm  remain  untenanted,  but  no  one  willingly 
went  near  the  place  in  the  day-time,  and  after  night- 
fall it  was  supposed  to  be  left  to  spirits  of  darkness. 
Mary  Mori  arty,  when  he  suggested  this  plan,  showed 
marked  unwillingness.  She  told  him  a  story  of  a 
relative  of  hers  who  had  gone  there  looking  for  the 
stolen  money,  which  had  never  been  recovered.  He 
had  seen  smoke  coming  out  of  a  peat  bank,  and  when 
he  went  to  look,  he  found  a  place  for  all  the  world 
like  a  whiskey  still,  and  a  little  creature  no  bigger  than 
his  hand  stirring  the  fire,  and  he  offered  her  relative  a 
sup  of  whiske}^,  and  he  took  it  and  he  found  it  was 
melted  gold  that  he  was  swallowing,  and  he  came  to 
himself  with  the  pain,  and  he  was  in  his  own  cabin  by 
the  fire-side,  and  the  water  from  the  kettle  pouring 
on  the  face  of  him.  Finding  Goring  only  laughed, 
she  grew  positive  and  angry.  She  could  not  find 
the  place.  He  would  lose  his  footing  in  the  crags. 
The  road  below  would  be  safer  for  his  honour  than 
that  black,  uq^Iv  crlen.  The  more  unwillinjj  she 
showed  herself,  the  more  Goring  felt  that  she  had 
some  reason   for  it  beyond  what  she  acknowledged, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  171 


and  the  more  determined  he  was  to  discover  what  the 
reason  could  be. 

At  length,  finding  that  he  was  obstinate,  she  said, 
"  Well,  then,  I'll  take  your  honour  to  the  edge  of  the 
cliff,  anyway.  The  moon  will  be  rising  by  that  time, 
and  )^e  can  look  over  and  see  what  will  be  before  ye.  If 
ye  like  to  go  further  thin,  ye  may  take  your  o\tn 
way." 

She  set  off  up  the  ridge  of  the  mountain,  moving  so 
fast  that  Goring  had  no  breath  to  ask  further  ques- 
tions. They  reached  the  crest,  and  she  flitted  on 
before  him,  threading  her  way  among  moss  hags  and 
jutting  rocks  ,  and  along  the  side  of  slopes  so  steep 
that  a  false  step  would  have  meant  a  roll  of  a  hundred 
feet,  going  all  the  time  as  straight  and  confident  as  a 
hound  upon  a  breast-high  scent.  At  one  point  they 
descended  into  a  shallow  chasm,  where  was  a  tarn,  in 
which  the  stars  were  glimmering  and  a  lonely  heron 
was  making  his  midnight  meal.  The  bird  rose  with 
an  angry  cry,  as  if  demanding  who,  at  such  an  hour, 
was  intruding  on  his  fishing-ground. 

For  more  than  an  hour  they  had  walked  on  at  full 
speed,  and  Goring  judged  that,  by  that  time,  the  point 
for  which  they  were  making  could  not  be  far  off  His 
guide  suddenly  stopped  at  the  edge  of  the  ridge,  and 
beckoned  to  him  with  her  finger  to  come  forward. 
She  was  on  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  which  fell  abruptly 
below  her  for  seven  hundred  feet,  and  at  the  bottom 
was  spread  out  the  broad,  level  meadow  at  the  head 
of  the  Pocket  Valle}-.  The  moon  had  risen  on  the 
shoulder  of  Knockowen,  immediately  opposite  them, 
and  the  pools  of  the  river  which  stole  slowly  down  the 
middle  of  the  glen  were  glimmering  in  the  golden 
light.      He    was^^^ft^^Jj^f^^jie    scene,    conscious  of 

..fviiv/rRSlTY 


172  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


nothing  but  its  extraordinary  beauty,  when  she  drew 
him  back,  and  bade  him  follow  her  a  few  feet  down, 
where  they  could  stand  with  the  rocks  at  their  backs, 
and  be  no  longer  in  so  conspicuous  a  position.  In 
explanation  of  this  precaution,  she  pointed  to  the 
deserted  farm,  and  round  it,  looking  carefully,  he  saw 
a  crowd  of  figures  in  rapid  motion.  What  they  were, 
whether  fairies  come  to  dance  in  the  moonlight,  or 
things  of  flesh  and  blood,. he  knew  not.  They  were 
not  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  him,  and,  as  he 
looked  steadih',  he  counted  near  six  hundred  of  them. 

They  appeared  to  have  white  shirts  on  ;  men,  he 
concluded  them  to  be,  from  the  regularity  of  their 
movements,  and  from  the  short,  sharp  calls,  like  notes 
of  command,  which,  in  the  silence  of  the  night,  were 
distinctly  audible,  their  evolutions  appeared  to  be 
directed  by  some  kind  of  authority. 

*'  As  your  honour  belongs  to  the  army,"  she  said 
"  you  will  know  what  that  means.  Sorra  be  with 
them.  It  is  the  old  work  they  are  after  again,  and 
never  good  came  to  this  poor  country  from  the  like  of 
it,  and  never  will.  Your  honour,  I'm  thinking,  will 
hardly  be  willing  to  cross  the  glen,  this  night,  in  the 
middle  of  them  ?  " 

Goring  had  heard  often  of  these  midnight  drills  in 
the  mountains.  He  had,  himself  so  far,  seen  nothing 
of  them,  and  but  half  believed,  if  he  believed  at 
all,  the  stories  which  had  reached  him.  Here  was 
the  very  thing  under  his  eyes  ;  men  enough  to  form 
a  regiment  learning  to  handle  their  arms,  form  in 
line  and  square,  advance,  charge,  and  wheel,  and  the 
style  in  which  they  went  through  their  exercises 
showed  that  they  must  have  experienced  officers 
among  them. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  i73 

Perched  high  up  like  ravens,  in  a  niche  in  the  crag, 
the  Colonel  could  see  without  danger  of  being  seen, 
and  could  speak  freely,  being  too  far  off  for  his  voice 
to  be  heard,  unless  he  shouted.  So  interested, 
however,  was  he  in  what  he  saw,  that  he  stood  for 
some  minutes  without  uttering  a  word.  When  he 
could  no  longer  doubt  the  reality  of  what  was  before 
him,  he  turned  to  his  guide  for  an  explanation. 

"  You  knew  what  would  be  going  on  here,"  he  said, 
*'  and  that  was  the  reason  why  you  did  not  Vv'ish  to 
bring  me  this  way.  How  came  they  to  trust  you 
with  their  secrets  ?  " 

"  Well  then,  I'll  tell  your  honour.  I  heard  the  boys 
talking  down  at  the  dance,  and  they  were  saying  how 
it  was  arranged  that  they  were  to  meet  in  this  place 
after  the  funeral.  W^e  are*  free  enough  when  we  are 
speaking  among  ourselves,  and  they  would  as  soon 
think  that  the  like  of  myself  would  be  informing  upon 
them  as  if  I  were  a  child  in  the  cradle.  Sorra  bit  I 
know  whether  I  was  doing  right  to  lead  ye  here  at  all, 
at  all.  There  is  none  that  lives  that  I  would  have 
done  it  for,  except  your  honour,  nor  would  I  have 
done  it  for  your  honour's  self,  God  spare  ye  !  but  that 
ye  were  bent  upon  your  own  harm." 

"  You  may  have  done  your  country  a  good  service, 
my  girl,"  he  answered.  "  This  poor,  misguided  people 
are  thinking  of  another  rebellion,  and  they  will  only 
destroy  themselves  if  they  try  it.  The  French  are 
just  encouraging  them  for  their  own  purposes." 

"  It  is  likely  that  is  true,  your  honour.  Never  good 
came  to  Ireland  of  them  French  officers,  that  I  heard 
of.  There  was  one  of  them  hiding  in  the  island  in 
Glanmore  Lake,  and  there  was  a  daughter  of  a  farmer 
on  the  hill  beyond  that  brought  him  food  when  night 


174 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


fell,  milk,  and  eggs,  and  meal,  and  the  like,  and  what 
was  the  end  of  it  but  evil  and  shame  upon  her  father's 
house  ?  It  is  but  two  years  gone,  but  all  is  forgotten 
now.  The  foolish  creatures  think  the  French  will 
help  them  to  get  the  countr)^  back  for  their  own." 

"  They  have  officers  among  them    down  there  who 
have  been  in  some  regular  service." 

"  Your  honour  is  right  in  that  too,  and  as  I  have 
shown  you  so  much,  I  may  as  well  tell  ye  all  that  I 
know.  Ye  will  have  seen  them  young  gentlemen  that 
were  with  Morty  Sullivan  at  Derreen  this  afternoon. 
There  was  Mr.  Connell,  that  is  from  Darrynane,  across 
the  water.  He  has  been  in  Morty 's  company  in  the 
wars  abroad  for  five  years  gone.  And  there  was  the 
other,  a  Frenchman.  Connell  has  gone  away  with 
Morty  in  the  ship  he  has.  This  one  was  left,  and  he 
is  yonder.  Morty  was  to  have  been  here  himself, 
and  the  meeting  was  ordered  for  him.  He  has 
muskets,  and  pistols,  and  swords,  and  barrels  of 
powder  and  other  divilry  with  him.  I  heard  the 
boys  saying  that  he  was  to  have  landed  them  in  the 
boats  up  the  river  this  night,  and  the  boys  were  to 
have  had  them  given  out  for  the  exercise  here  in  the 
glen.  But  your  honour  put  the  shame  upon  him. 
He  was  out  of  humour  like,  and  he  would  not  stay. 
He  left  his  friend  to  meet  the  boys  in  the  place  of 
him,  and  to  tell  them  the  arms  should  be  put  on 
shore  for  them  two  nights  hence  at  Glengariff  or  one  of 
thim  places.  He  has  slipped  away  out  to  the  Sea, 
that  your  honour  may  think  he's  gone,  but  he  is 
coming  back  to  land  the  chests,  bad  luck  to  him,  and 
thin  the  French  gentleman  is  to  join  him  again." 

"  Did  the  lads  at  the  dance  say  positively  when   the 
arms  were  to  be  landed  ?  " 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  175 


"  'Twas  the  night  after  the  next  Morty  was  to 
come  in.  I  am  sure  of  that.  They  were  talking  so 
I  couldn't  hear  distinctly  the  place  they  agreed  on. 
Some  one  said  Glengariff.  It  was  one  he  and  the> 
knew    well  enough,  any  way." 

At  the  end  of  an  hour  the  evolutions  ended.  The 
men  formed  into  a  large  circle  and  sang  an  Irish 
chant,  of  which  the  words  were  inaudible,  but  the 
vowel  sounds  floated  up  in  the  night  breezes  and 
died  in  the  gorges  of  the  mountains.  When  it  was 
over  they  all  disappeared,  as  if  they  were  unsub- 
stantial as  the  phantoms  they  resembled. 

"  You  and  I  must  be  going,"  said  Goring,  "  and  be 
quick  upon  our  road,  or  the  dawn  will  be  upon  us 
before  you  can  reach  your  home.  I  too  must  hasten 
to  mine,  to  prevent  these  foolish  peasants  from  being 
furnished  with  such  means  of  mischief.  We  will  now 
make  for  the  hills  above  Glenbeg.  It  cannot  be  more 
than  two  or  three  miles  from  us.  I  will  see  you  to  a 
point  where  you  can  look  down  at  your  father's  cabin, 
and  then  we  must  part." 

The  daylight  had  not  begun  to  appear  when  they 
reached  the  point  that  Goring  spoke  of.  It  was  still 
dark,  and  the  girl  could  make  her  way  into  the  valley 
without  fear  that  she  would  have  been  seen  in  his 
company.     Goring  shook  her  hand  warm-ly. 

"  I  can  never  forget  this  night,"  he  said.  "  I  have 
heard  others  say  that  the  faults  of  the  Irish  are 
the  faults  of  a  noble  nature,  which  has  been 
wrenched  out  of  its  proper  shape.  I  believe  it  now  ; 
for  in  no  race  in  this  world  could  I  have  found  man 
or  woman  who  would  have  risked  what  you  have 
risked  to  save  one  whom  you  have  been  told  to  look 
on  as  the  enemy  of  your   country.      Such   I   am  not. 


176  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


Such  my  countrymen  are  not,  and  we  might  be 
friends  if  we  could  but  understand  each  other.  But 
God  reward  you,  my  brave  girl,  and  make  you  happy, 
and  never  shall  you  or  yours  want  a  friend  while  I 
or  my  wife  are  alive. 

"  Before  we  separate,  however,  I  must  ask  you  two 
questions,  you  will  answer  them  or  not,  as  you  choose, 
but  I  am  aware  that  you  know  many  of  the  secrets 
of  the  lawless  bands  who  have  so  long  disturbed  the 
quiet  of  these  baronies.  1  have  asked  your  father 
for  no  information,  because  he  never  concealed  from 
me  his  own  past  connection  with  them.  I  was 
satisfied  that  it  had  ended,  and  I  could  not  ask,  I  could 
wish  him  to  betray  his  old  friends.  Nor  can  I  wish 
you  to  tell  me  what  can  hurt  one  of  them.  But  I 
desire  to  learn  how,  and  by  whom  he  was  taken  down 
the  lake  on  the  day  you  came  to  Dunboy  to  tell  me 
that  he  was  dying." 

"  I'll  tell  you  that,  and  no  harm,"  she  said.  "  It  was 
some  old  friends  of  ours  that  had  come  to  Ardgroom 
in  a  sloop  the  night  before,  from  Nantes.  They 
heard  by  chance  how  it  was  with  him.  They  carried 
him  down  in  their  boat.  They  took  care  of  him,  and 
they  took  care  of  myself,  as  if  we  were  their  own 
flesh  and  blood.  If  it  was  breaking  the  laws  they 
were  after,  I  hope  there  is  pardon  for  them  in  heaven, 
for  they  saved  my  father's  life  that  day." 

"As  I  was  on  my  v/ay  to  see  him,"  Goring  said. 
"  I  met  a  man  on  the  hill-top,  whom  I  saw  yesterday 
at  Derreen,  at  Morty  Sullivan's  side.  Was  Morty 
Sullivan  one  of  these  friends  you  speak  of  ?  " 

"  He  was  not  that.  He  was  not  here  at  all.  It  is  Mr. 
Connell  ye  are  meaning.  He  it  was  that  came  with 
the  sloop,  and  the  others  with  him.     He  went  in  the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  177 

boat  to  Glenbeg.    He  gave  my  father  what  he  needed 
He    left    his    men     to    carry    him     down,    and    went 
himself  to  the  mountain.     Your  honour    knows  what 
you  saw  there." 

"  I  know.  I  know.  Fearful  wrong  had  been  done, 
and  it  was  fearfully  revenged.  Had  Connell  a  hand 
in  that  business  ?    for  he  told  me  No." 

"  He  tould  you  no  more  than  the  truth,  but  if  your 
honour  thinks  you  owe  me  any  kindness  for  this 
night's  work,  you  will  ask  me  no  more  questions.  I 
could  tell  you  all,  but  I  dare  not.  They  swore  me  on 
the  skull  that  I  would  never  speak,  and  a  dreadful 
oath  it  is,  and  fearful  to  think  on.  They  say  that  if 
you  break  it,  this  is  the  one  sin  for  which  the  priest  can 
give  you  no  forgiveness.  And  now  God  save  you, 
sir,  and  bring  ye  safe  hame  to  your  friends.  If  ye 
will  take  a  poor  girl's  advice  ye  will  be  gone  out  of 
this  country  back  to  your  own  land  ye  came  from. 
It  was  a  good  day  for  my  old  father  that  brought  ye 
here,  and  there  is  many  besides  us  that  has  cause  to 
bless  ye.  But  it  will  be  a  better  day  for  yourself  that 
takes  ye  away,  for  ye  have  ill  friends  here,  and  that 
ye  have  cause  to  know." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  dawn  was  breaking  when  Goring  reached  the 
Cork  side  of  the  mountains,  from  which  he  could 
look  over  Dunboy,  and  could  see  his  own  house 
among  the  trees.  As  he  made  his  way  down  he  had 
to  review  his  own  position,  and  determine  what  he 
must  immediately  do.  He  had  no  help  to  look  for 
among  his  neighbours,  and  it  would  be  useless  to 
appeal  to  them.     But  his  own  settlement  was  thriving 

12 


178  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

beyond  his  most  sanguine  expectations.  The  veins 
of  copper  in  the  mines  proved  richer,  the  deeper  the 
workings  were  carried.  The  fisheries  had  yielded 
and  were  still  yielding  a  golden  harvest.  The  oat 
crops  were  ripe  and  abundant.  The  potatoes 
promised  admirably.  There  was  ill-will  enough 
among  many  of  the  Catholics,  but  it  showed  itself 
more  in  manner  than  in  act  ;  and  indeed,  unless  there 
was  a  general  insurrection,  his  people  formed  a  society 
among  themselves  and  could  hold  their  own  against 
local  jealousies.  Though  so  careless  of  his  personal 
security,  Colonel  Goring  had  provided  them  amply 
with  arms  ;  and  an  occasional  muster  on  a  holiday, 
with  targets  and  shooting  matches,  was  a  warning 
that  they  would  be  dangerous  to  meddle  with. 
Hitherto,  beyond  threatening  letters,  there  had  been 
no  cause  for  serious  alarm,  and  the  high  wages  paid 
at  the  works  for  carting  and  digging  continued  to 
attract  Irish  labourers  in  spite  of  the  Priest's  efforts  to 
keep  them  away.  An  outward  friendliness  between 
the  new-comers  and  the  old  inhabitants  established 
itself  as  if  against  the  wind,  the  material  temptations 
proving  too  strong  for  the  inherited  dislike.  At 
various  times,  under  the  efforts  of  the  agitators, 
straying  cows  had  been  mutilated,  fences  broken 
down,  nets  and  fishing  lines  cut  ar^  stolen,  and  oars 
taken  away  from  the  boats.  An  old  man  at  the  pier 
at  Dunboy  had  burst  out  upon  Goring  himself 
'*  Bad  luck  to  the  hour  that  ye  came  among  us,"  he 
said,  ''with  your  barges  and  your  drift  nets  that  catch 
all  the  large  herring,  and  leave  but  the  little  ones 
to  the  poor  Irish  that  own  the  whole."  The  paltry 
anno}'ances  to  which  he  had  been  exposed  by  persons 
who  pretended  to  have    claims  on  the  property  had 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY,  179 

given  him  serious  trouble  ;  but  the  claimants  had 
been  defeated  and  silenced,  and  among  the  peasantry 
he  had  made  way  by  his  unwearied  generosity  and 
kindness.  They  had  found  a  protector  in  him  against 
the  middlemen  and  the  Bantry  attorneys,  and 
although  among  these  classes  the  animosity  was 
unrelenting  as  ever,  he  was  sanguine  enough  to  believe 
that  the  rest   were  not   ungrateful  to  him. 

But  the  scene  which  he  had  witnessed  that  night 
taught  him  that  the  danger  was  far  more  real  than  he 
had  hitherto  supposed.  His  own  life  was  aimed  at  in 
earnest ;  but  more  than  that,  preparations  were  being 
evidently  made  for  serious  disturbance.  Once  more 
the  French  Government  was  actively  encouraging  an 
insurrectionary  spirit.  A  French  descent  on  the  coast 
was  not  unlikely  as  soon  as  war  should  openly  be 
declared  at  home.  If  the  object  was  only  to  distract 
and  embarrass  the  English  troops,  and  prevent  the 
despatch  of  increased  forces  to  the  American  continent, 
the  peril  to  the  Irish  counties  of  the  south  was  equally 
great  ;  for  there  were  not  regiments  enough  to 
encounter  a  wide-spread  rising,  if  organised  bodies, 
like  those  who  had  been  at  the  moonlight  drill,  were 
to  take  the  field  and  fall  on  the  loosely-scattered 
and  scanty  loyalists.  On  the  country  gentlemen  he 
was  pretty  well  assured  that  no  confidence  could  be 
placed  at  all.  His  connection  with  the  coastguard 
was  a  weakness  rather  than  a  support  to  him,  and  he 
regretted  that  he  had  been  tempted  to  meddle  with 
it.  He  felt,  however,  that  while  the  peril  lasted,  he 
ought  not  to  resign.  He  must  make  fresh  efforts  to 
brincr  the  Government  to  look  the  situation  in  the 
face,  and  not  till  they  had  again  refused  to  take 
measures  for  the   protection    of   the    country,  would 


i3o  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY 


he  request  them  to  provide  him  with  a  successor. 
Above  all,  he  must  do  his  utmost  to  prevent  the 
landing  of  the  arms  which  would  turn  the  white- 
shirted  companies  into  really  formidable  banditti. 
He  must  instantly  inform  the  admiral  of  the  station 
of  Morty's  arrival  with  the  Doutellc,  and  secure,  if 
possible,  her  capture  and  destruction. 

At  Dunboy  he  found  everything  quiet.  After  the 
exciting  scenes  which  he  had  passed  through,  the 
composure  itself  seemed  unnatural.  When  we  are 
ourselves  strongly  excited,  we  expect  what  is  round 
us  to  reflect  the  condition  of  our  own  minds.  We  are 
astonished  when  the  common  affairs  of  daily  life  go 
their  ow^n  way,  refuse  to  be  agitated  because  we  are 
uneasy,  or  to  smile  or  weep  as  we  are  happy  or 
sorrowful.  No  news  had  as  yet  arrived  of  the 
incidents  at  the  funeral.  At  his  own  house  no  one 
was  as  yet  stirring,  for  when  he  reached  it  the  sun  was 
but  just  above  the  horizon.  The  men  outside  were 
going  about  their  work,  and  he  was  himself  so  often 
out  on  night  expeditions  that  his  return  in  the  morn- 
ing created  no  surprise  among  them.  One  of  his  fish- 
ing smacks  had  just  come  in  from  outside  with 
a  heavy  catch  of  cod  and  ling.  He  directed 
two  of  the  fishermen  to  take  them  in  a  boat  to 
Bantry  and  dispose  of  them.  He  sent  with  them  an 
Irishman  in  his  service,  on  whom  he  could  absolutely 
rely.  He  wrote  a  few  words  to  the  Admiral,  which 
for  security  he  sewed  in  the  lining  of  the  m.an's  coat. 
He  bade  him  make  his  way  from  Bantry  across 
the  co'jntry  with  all  possible  speed,  and  deliver  the 
note  into  the  Adm.iral's  own  hands  either  at  Cork  or 
Kinsale,  at  whichever  port  the  squadron  might  be. 
The  boat  dispatched,  his  next  anxiety  was  to  discover 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUXBOY.  i8i 

by  such  other  channels  of  information  as  he  possessed 
at  what  point  Morty  Suhivan  would  attempt  to  run 
his  arm-chests.  That  the  attempt  would  be  made  in  a 
night  or  two,  he  was  convinced,  as  Morty  would  not 
venture  to  remain  on  the  coast  any  longer.  The 
landing,  however,  could  not  be  managed  without  an 
arrangement  with  confederates  on  shore  ;  and  the 
original  plan  having  fallen  through,  fresh  dispositions 
would  be  necessary.  If  the  Moriarty  girl's  story 
was  cOxTect,  these  dispositions  had  been  already  made. 
The  time  had  been  fixed  for  the  night  after  the  next, 
and  an  officer  of  the  Doutelle  had  been  left  behind 
to  take  charge  of  them.  She  had  heard  Glengariff 
mentioned,  but  Glengariff  bay  was  wide,  and  the  time 
was  short.  If  all  the  men  who  had  been  in  the 
Pocket  were  brought  down  to  receive  the  arms,  he 
could  of  course  do  nothing,  and  his  best  chance 
would  then  be  that  his  messenger  should  find  a  frigate 
ready  to  put  to  sea,  which  could  catch  Morty  in  the 
open  water.  The  chances  were,  however,  that  so  large 
a  body  would  not  be  collected  for  fear  of  attracting 
observation,  and  that  the  local  gangs  only  would  be 
employed  to  receive  the  cargo.  Spies  were  sent 
about  to  gather  anything  that  could  be  heard. 
Watchmen  went  to  the  tops  of  the  hills  to  keep  a 
look-out  towards  the  sea.  The  Colonel,  having  done 
all  which  for  the  moment  he  could  do,  swallowed  a 
hasty  breakfast,  threw  himself  on  his  bed,  and  slept. 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  he  a\\^oke. 
Parties  returning  over  the  mountains  from  the  funeral 
had  meanwhile  brought  the  account  of  the  duel,  with 
the  rumour  that  the  SuUivans  had  lain  in  wait  to  kill 
the  master  on  his  way  home.  They  had  failed,  and 
were  savage  at  the  disappointment ;  but  how  he  had 


i82  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

escaped  no  one  could  say,  nor,  when  it  was  ascertained 
beyond  a  doubt  that  he  was  in  his  own  house,  could  any- 
one guess  how  he  had  got  there.  The  yard  at  Dunboy 
was  crowded  with  anxious  parties  from  the  mines, 
who  had  come  to  assure  themselves  of  his  safety. 
Morty  Sullivan  was  on  every  one's  lip.  He  had  been 
seen  here,  he  had  been  seen  there.  He  was  coming 
into  the  harbour  to  destroy  the  master's  own  dwelling 
with  his  guns.  Among  the  many  stories  flying,  the 
most  credible  was  brought  in  by  a  sloop  which  had 
fallen  in  outside  with  a  Scariff  fishing  boat.  The 
Scariff  men  said  that  before  daylight  that  morning, 
a  large  vessel  with  two  masts  and  a  strange  rig  had 
been  near  them  in  a  calm.  They  had  been  on  board 
her,  selling  their  fish.  She  was  full  of  men,  who  said 
they  had  a  thousand  stand  of  arms  on  board,  and  fifty 
barrels  of  powder.  The  country  was  about  to  rise, 
and  they  said  the  French  were  coming  over  and  all 
the  English  were  to  be  killed.  They  professed  to  be 
going  to  Dingle,  where  the  powder  and  guns  were  to 
be  landed,  but  a  breeze  had  sprung  up,  and  the  la.st 
the  Scariff  boat  saw  of  them  they  wer£  standing  out 
to  sea,  whither  bound  they  could  not  say.  Nothing  in 
the  meanwhile  had  been  seen  of  her  by  the  look-out 
men,  and  speculation  was  at  fault. 

Colonel  Goring  had  desired  to  be  informed  when 
the  boat  returned  which  he  had  sent  up  with  the  fish. 
Three  men  had  gone  in  her,  and  one  was  to  carry  his 
message  to  Cork.  It  was  with  surprise  and  some 
uneasiness  that  he  learnt  that  three  had  come  back. 
On  hastening  to  meet  them  at  the  landing  place,  he 
was  relieved  to  find  that  his  messenger  was  not  one 
of  them.  The  third  man  was  a  stranger,  who  had 
induced  the  boatmen  to  bring  him   down,  by  alleging 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY.  183 

that  he  had  matters  of  importance  to  speak  to  the 
Colonel  about 

These  matters  did  not  seem  important  after  all. 
He  was  a  carrier  from  Dunmanway,  he  said,  and 
he  traded  in  salt  butter  for  the  Cork  market.  His 
honour,  he  understood,  was  cheated  by  the  Bantry 
dealers  about  his  fish.  The  finest  cod  that  had  been 
caught  for  the  season  had  been  sent  up  that  morning, 
and  divil  a  right  price  at  all  had  been  paid  for  them. 
He  would  be  glad  to  do  the  Colonel's  business  him- 
self that  way,  if  his  honour  would  be  pleased  to  meet 
him. 

Harassed  and  anxious  as  he  was.  Goring  would 
have  turned  the  Dunmanway  carrier  over  to  his 
steward,  but  he  gathered  from  the  man's  manner  that 
he  might  have  more  to  say,  and  let  him  talk  a  little 
longer. 

Carriage,  the  fellow  said,  seemed  mighty  scarce 
in  Bantry.  The  boys  had  been  wanting  his  carts  and 
horses  for  the  next  day,  and  for  the  life  of  him  he 
couldn't  tell  what  they  were  about  that  they  would  be 
taking  them.  Maybe  there  was  work  going  on 
carting  sea-weed,  or  the  like  of  that.  But  for  all  else 
they  had  to  do  they  might  carry  the  sea-weed  on  their 
backs,  the  poor  creatures. 

When  an  Irishman  has  information  (o  give,  which  he 
supposes  to  be  valuable,  he  will  ^o  round  half-a-dozen 
times  before  he  comes  to  it.  Secrets  often  reached 
Goring  from  singular  sources,  which  were  afterwards 
well  paid  for.  The  carrier  had  probably  some  such 
secret,  and  was  anxious  to  know  what  he  would  get  for 
telling  it.  The  Colonel  on  his  side  had  to  take  care 
that  he  did  not  pay  for  illusions.  Gradually,  sentence 
by  sentence,  he  drew  out  that  the  carts  and  horses  were 


1 84  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

to  be  on  the  shore  at  the  harbour  at  Glcngariff  on  the 
night  following.  A  vessel  of  some  sort  was  coming 
up  from  the  sea.  A  contraband  cargo  of  some  kind 
was  to  be  run,  and  taken  off  into  the  country  before 
daylight. 

The  man's  story  might  be  purposely  misleading, 
but  Colonel  Goring  was  experienced  in  such  things. 
It  corresponded  exactly  w^th  what  he  had  learned 
already.  The  Doutelle  had  stood  off  to  sea,  as  Mary 
Moriarty  had  heard  that  she  was  to  do.  She  w^as  to 
return  on  the  following  night,  as  she  had  heard  also. 
The  landing  was  to  be  at  a  spot  at  Glcngariff  with 
which  the  coast  smugglers  were  all  familiar.  The 
carrier  again  named  Glcngariff,  and  there  was  such  a 
spot  in  the  harbour  where  the  road  came  down  to  the 
water,  and  carts  and  horses  could  conveniently  ap- 
proach. He  knew  it  intimately,  for  it  had  been  often 
used  for  similar  enterprises.  If  he  was  right  in  his 
conjecture,  he  concluded  that,  although  it  would  be  a 
work  of  difficulty  and  considerable  danger,  he  might 
succeed  either  in  preventing  the  landing  or  in  destroy- 
ing the  cargo,  from  the  peculiar  disposition  of  the  rocks 
and  of  the  channels  between  them.  A  glance  at  the 
tideway  shewed  him  that  it  w^ould  be  low  water  at  the 
hour  fixed,  which  would  give  him  an  additional  ad- 
vantage. The  Doutelle  was  heavily  armed,  and  had  a 
powerful  and  daring  crew.  The  country  people  might 
be  down  in  overwhelming  numbers.  Together  they 
might  be  too  much  for  him,  but  in  that  case  he  calcu- 
lated that  in  the  darkness  he  could  draw  off  among 
the  Islands.  Of  the  coast-guardsmen  he  had  five 
left,  and  one  unfit  for  duty,  but  of  his  own  fishermen 
and  miners  he  had  thirty  or  forty  who  had  volunteered 
for  such  expeditions  on  previous  occasions.    They  had 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  185 

a  natural  contempt  for  the  Irish.  They  looked  on 
them  as  watchdogs  look  on  wolves  and  jackals,  with 
whom  an  occasional  fray  is  part  of  the  natural  order 
of  things. 

Colonel  Goring  slept  upon  his  problem,  and  woke 
the  next  morning  resolute,  with  his  plan  settled  in  his 
mind.  He  sent  for  five  or  six  of  his  people  on  whom 
he  could  best  depend.  He  told  them  frankly  that 
the  South  of  Ireland  was  in  a  more  dangerous  con- 
dition than  they  had  hitherto  experienced.  The 
calm  of  the  surface  was  deceptive.  The  peasantry 
of  the  mountains  had  been  drilling  in  large  numbers. 
He  had  himself  seen  them.  He  had  learnt  that  arms 
were  that  night  to  be  landed  for  them,  and  when 
these  arms  were  in  their  possession  the  Protestants  at 
Dunboy,  with  their  wives  and  children,  would  be 
in  considerable  peril.  He  reminded  them,  though  he 
would  not  suppose  that  they  needed  reminding,  that 
they  had  come  over  from  England  on  terms  advan- 
tageous to  themselves.  They  had  land,  they  had 
employment,  they  had  high  wages,  and  a  fairer  chance 
of  advancing  themselves  than  they  could  have  found 
in  Cornwall  or  Devonshire.  But  they  were  aware 
also  that  they  might  have  to  fight  to  keep  what 
they  had  got.  He  believed  it  to  be  indispensable  to 
their  safety  to  prevent  these  arms  from  being  put  on 
shore,  and  he  had  to  ask  them  how  far  they  and  their 
companions  would  stand  by  him  in  an  endeavour  to 
seize  them. 

Englishmen  are  not  easily  frightened  at  the  sound 
of  danger.  These  men  too  had  the  old  Puritan  tem- 
perament in  them.  On  each  23rd  of  October  they 
had  observed  the  anniversary  of  the  massacre  by  the 
Irish  \\\  1 64 1,  and  they  had  sternly  rejoiced  in  the  re- 


i86  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

tribution  which  Oliver  Cromwell,  with  a  mere  handful 
of  English  troops  who  had  the  fear  of  God  in  them, 
had  inflicted  upon  Phelim  O'Neil  and  his  confederates. 
That  they  could  fail  themselves,  in  an  encounter  with 
an  Irish  mob  or  a  boat  full  of  privateer's-men,  never 
crossed  their  thoughts.  They  were  not  only  willing  to 
go,  but  eager,  and  their  comrades  they  said  would 
accompany  them  to  a  man.  Colonel  Goring  desired 
them  to  pick  out  thirty  of  their  best  and  coolest  shots. 
These,  with  the  four  coastguardsmen  and  himself,  he 
thought,  would  be  sufficient.  He  charged  them  to 
mention  the  subject  to  no  one,  except  to  those  who 
were  to  go,  for  if  the  slightest  hint  got  abroad,  warning 
fires  would  be  lighted  on  the  hills,  and  the  scheme 
which  he  had  formed  would  be  defeated.  At  low 
water  the  Doiitelle  would  have  to  anchor  half  a  mile 
from  the  cove  were  he  was  assured  the  landing  would 
be  attempted.  Certain  reefs  of  rock  would  then  be 
left  dry  which  commanded  the  entrance  to  it.  These 
rocks  he  intended  to  occupy  after  nightfall,  and  if  no 
alarm  was  given,  he  believed  that  he  could  shelter 
himself  among  them  unseen. 

Often  after  sunset  the  larger  boats  went  out  with 
drift  nets,  or  with  long  lines  for  skate  and  congers. 
No  particular  notice,  therefore,  would  be  attracted  if 
two  or  three  boats  were  seen  to  leave  the  harbour  with 
eight  or  ten  men  in  each.  Colonel  Goring  himself 
often  joined  in  these  night  fishings  ;  and  that  the  party 
eoino-  out  with  him  was  rather  above  the  usual  strength 
could  be  accounted  for  by  the  great  schools  of  herrings 
and  mackerel  which  had  been  seen  about  the  bay  in 
the  morning.  Two  of  the  boats  chosen  were  the 
fastest  the  Colcncl  had.  They  were  like  the  galleys 
of  a  man-of-war,  and  were  rowed  with  ten  oars,  or  on 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  187 


occasion  with  twelve.  The  third  was  smaller  and 
lighter,  and  was  the  swiftest  of  the  three.  They  were 
kept  in  sheds  out  of  sight,  and  the  preparations  could 
be  completed  unobserved.  Among  the  stores  there  was 
an  armoury,  and  every  thing  necessary  for  the  expe- 
dition lay  there  ready  to  hand.  Late  in  the  afternoon, 
for  till  then  nothing  was  touched,  that  there  might  be 
no  sign  of  anything  unusual,  fifty  rifles  and  pistols, 
cases  of  cartridges,  and  as  many  cutlasses  and  dirks, 
were  distributed  among  the  boats  and  laid  in  the 
bottom.  Nets,  ropes,  and  lines,  were  flung  over  them. 
The  men  were  in  their  Common  fishing  dress.  Colonel 
Goring  in  sea  boots  and  shooting  jacket.  The  night 
promised  to  be  dark — there  would  be  no  moon  till 
three  in  the  morning  ;  they  started  out  under  cover 
of  the  dusk,  and  by  their  course  they  seemed  to  be 
making  for  the  usual  fishing  ground  behind  the 
Island. 

In  half  an  hour  the  last  of  the  daylight  was  gone. 
They  could  scarcely  see  the  land  themselves,  and  were 
in  no  danger  at  all  of  being  seen  from  it.  They  then 
headed  away  for  the  lonely  inlet  of  Adrigoole,  which 
was  half-way  to  the  place  of  their  destination. 
Adrigoole  lay  at  the  foot  of  Hungry  Hill.  In  the 
afternoon  Goring  had  sent  a  scout  to  the  top  of  it  to 
examine  the  horizon  for  signs  of  the  D  out  die,  and 
with  orders  to  meet  him  there  with  the  latest  in- 
formation. The  scout  brought  word  that  he  had 
distinctly  seen  her  after  sunset  coming  in  towards  the 
land.  She  was  then  outside  the  Durseys,  and,  if  the 
breeze  held,  would  soon  be  running  up  the  Bay. 

No  doubt  now  remained.  The  wind  was  right 
from  the  westward  ;  it  was  inclining  to  fall,  but  the 
Doutelles  large  canvas  would   draw  her  fast  throusfh 


iSS  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

the  water  so  long  as  any  air  remained,  and  the  ebbing 
tide  would  not  delay  her  long.  The  men  lifted  out 
their  nets  and  stowed  them  awa\'  in  a  cave,  got 
their  arms  out  and  put  them  in  order,  and  then 
rowed  on  close  under  the  shore  with  muffled  oars. 
The  surface  of  the  water  was  still,  but  there  was  a 
long  ground  swell,  which  broke  and  moaned  upon 
the  rocks,  and  protected  them  from  being  heard  still 
more  effectively. 

The  night  was  hazy  without  either  stars  or  moon  ; 
but  at  sea  it  is  seldom  absolutely  dark,  and  before 
long  they  saw  the  spars  and  sails  of  ^forty's  vessel 
against  the  midnight  sky  as  she  swept  slowly  by. 
x\s  the  tide  was  out  she  would  have  to  make  a  round 
to  enter  Glengariff  harbour.  B}-  keeping  to  the  west 
of  the  rocky  islands  at  the  mouth  the  boats  would 
be  there  before  her. 

The  landing  cove  was  on  the  farther  side,  where 
the  Bantr\^  road  approached  the  water's  edge.  So 
far,  Goring  had  been  concealed  from  observation  by 
keeping  under  the  cliff;  but  between  him  and  the  rocks 
which  he  designed  to  occupy  there  was  now  a  stretch 
of  open  water,  which  in  some  wa\-  it  was  necessary 
for  him  to  cross.  He  had  a  double  danger  to  guard 
against.  He  might  be  seen  from  the  shore  and  seen 
from  the  DoutcUc,  and  ]Mort\''s  eyes  would  perhaps  be 
helped  by  night  glasses.  He  had  no  time  to  lose 
either,  for  the  vessel  was  fast  running  up.  He  could 
reach  the  middle  of  the  passage  unobserved  by  ma- 
noeuvring behind  the  Islands  at  the  entrance.  From 
there  he  had  to  dash  boldly  across,  and  there  was  a 
mile  of  dangerous  water  should  any  sharp  eye  be 
looking  out.  Beyond  this  he  would  be  in  the  shelter 
of  overhanging  woods,  and  could   reach  the  reef  un- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  189 


observed.  Fortune  peculiarly  favoured  him  that 
night.  No  one  saw  or  heard  him.  The  ground  swell 
was  unusually  loud,  and  drowned  all  other  sounds. 

He  had  marked  on  other  occasions  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  spot.  At  low  tide  the  cove  was  a  natural 
harbour,  of  which  reefs  on  either  side  formed  the 
piers,  leaving  a  narrow  opening  between  them.  The 
depth  of  it  from  the  mouth  to  the  landing  beach  was 
two  hundred  yards,  and  inside  was  a  completely 
sheltered  pool,  like  that  described  by  Homer,  where 
boats  could  run  in  and  be  left  unmoored.  The  reef 
or  pier  on  the  western  side  was  not  a  single  ridge  but 
double.  It  was  formed  rather  of  two  ridees  runniiip- 
parallel,  with  a  channel  between  them,  and  there  boats 
could  lie  unseen  either  from  the  shore  or  from  the 
water.  There  was  depth  sufficient  for  the  largest  of 
Goring' s  galleys  to  float,  and  two  hands  left  in  each 
would   hold  them  ready  for  instant  service. 

Into  this  channel  they  made  their  way  without 
having  been  perceived  ;  and  Goring,  with  the  boat- 
swain of  the  coastguard,  crept  to  the  top  of  the 
rock  to  reconnoitre.  The  entrance  to  the  cove  was 
directly  under  them,  and  he  could  see  faintly  to  the 
shingle  and  sand  at  the  end  of  it.  His  first  anxiety 
was  to  ascertain  whether  the  country  people  \\ere 
down  in  force.  He  made  out,  dimly,  some  half-dozen 
carts  and  horses  standing  in  the  road,  and  a  few 
indistinct  figures  were  seen  moving  about  the  sands  ; 
but,  in  the  obscurity,  he  could  come  to  no  certain 
conclusion.  Against  there  being  a  large  gathering, 
was,  that  they  would  think  it  unnecessary,  as  they  were 
not  likely  to  be  interfered  with.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  cargo  was  of  unusual  importance,  and  they  would 
not  neglect   reasonable    precautions.     On   the   whole 


I90  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


however,  whether  there  were  few  or  many  on  shore 
seemed  of  less  importance.  In  an  affair  of  this  kind, 
he  knew  that  he  could  count  on  the  cowardice  of  the 
common  Irish.  The  reef  of  rocks  where  he  stood 
could  not  be  reached  from  the  land  without  swim- 
ming, as  it  was  detached  at  the  shore  end.  The 
real  danger  was  from  the  boats  of  the  privateer ; 
and  these  he  purposed  to  take  by  surprise  as  they 
passed  close  to  him,  which  they  would  be  obliged 
to  do. 

The  mist  rose  a  few  minutes  after  they  had  taken 
their  positions,  and  the  Doutelle  was  seen  creeping  into 
the  bay.  The  breeze  had  fallen,  and  she  was  gliding 
through  the  water,  rather  with  the  motion  which  she 
had  brought  with  her  than  from  any  force  which  was 
left  in  the  wind.  She  went  on  till  she  had  passed  an 
Island  with  an  old  castle  upon  it,  designed  for  the 
protection  of  the  anchorage,  but  now  left  by  the 
general  neglect  to  become  a  deserted  ruin.  Here  she 
swung  round.  The  canvas  was  taken  in,  and  the)- 
heard  the  rattling  of  her  chain-cable  as  the  anchor 
was  let  go.  The  peak  of  the  mainsail  was  dropped, 
her  foresail  furled,  and  her  topsails  lowered.  In  a 
few  minutes  she  lay  still  and  motionless.  A  blaze  of 
straw  from  the  shore  was  answered  by  a  blue  light  on 
her  deck.  Her  largest  boat  had,  the  day  before,  been 
disabled  by  the  fall  of  a  spar,  which  had  stove  in  the 
side  of  it;  but  she  had  two  others,  which  she  was 
towing  at  her  stern,  to  be  ready  for  immediate  use, 
and  a  heavy  turf  barge  of  the  country  had  been  left 
moored  at  the  spot  where  she  was  to  bring  up.  This 
was  brought  alongside,  and,  the  creaking  of  blocks 
and  the  running  of  ropes  through  the  sheaves, 
announced  that  the  chests  were  being  lowered  into  it. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  191 


Many  hands  were  employed,  and  the  work  was  swiftly 
accomplished,  and  the  silence  which  followed  was 
again  broken  by  the  splash  of  oars. 

Had  Colonel  Goring's  object  been  simply  to  defeat 
the  landing,  or  to  cripple  as  much  as  possible  the 
smuggler's  crew,  he  had  only  to  land  his  men,  place 
them  in  secure  positions  among  the  rocks,  and  fire  into 
the  boats  at  close  quarters  as  they  entered  the  cove. 
But  he  could  not  yet  tell  how  large  might  be  the 
force  opposed  to  him.  The  vessel  might  have  boats 
in  reserve.  The  party  on  shore  might  have  boats 
also,  and  he  might  be  attacked  on  both  sides,  and  he 
had  to  hold  himself  in  a  condition  to  retreat,  if  he  was 
in  danger  of  being  overpowered. 

So  far  his  presence  was  unsuspected,  and  the 
surprise  would  be  complete.  But  there  were  forms  of 
law  to  be  observed  also.  Before  firing  on  the  boats, 
he  must  summon  them  to  surrender.  It  occurred  to 
him,  for  a  moment,  that  he  might  carry  the  vessel 
herself,  while  the  strength  of  her  crew  was  absent. 
But  he  reflected  that  he  would  be  seen  approaching, 
and  to  fail  would  be  fatal  ;  so  he  divided  his  party  ; 
half  he  left  in  the  boats,  with  orders  to  keep  them- 
selves in  readiness  to  take  the  others  on  board  at  an 
instant's  notice.  The  rest  he  disposed  behind  the  top 
of  the  reef,  which  the  tide  had  left  fifteen  feet  out  of 
the  water.  The  Doiitelle  was  half-a-mile  off  Her 
guns  commanded  the  rocks,  but  the  channel  behind, 
where  the  boats  were  lying,  was  completel)^  sheltered  ; 
and,  at  worst,  if  she  got  their  range,  there  was  cover 
among  the  clefts  and  cracks. 

The  sound  of  oars  now  drew  nearer  every  moment, 
and  black  forms  began  to  show  on  the  water,  growing 
larger  as  they  came   nearer.     At  length,  Goring  made 


192  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

out  two  gigs,  or  long  boats,  with  ten  figures  in  each, 
beside  the  coxswain.  They  were  towing  the  turf 
barge,  which  was  loaded  to  the  gunwale,  and  were 
advancing  slowly,  in  consequence.  It  was  an  un- 
wieldy tub,  which  would  not  steer,  and  he  could  hear 
them  cursing  it.  The  minutes  were  Hke  hours. 
Nothing  tries  men's  courage  more  than  King  in  am- 
bush, and  the  hearts  of  the  Dunboy  men  were  in  their 
throats.  As  the  leading  boat  came  into  the  mouth  of 
the  cove,  the  crew  lay  upon  their  oars,  to  see  which 
way  they  were  to  turn — and  Goring  observed  with 
satisfaction  that  they  were  strangers  to  the  place— 
or  at  least  were  imperfectly  acquainted  with  it. 
Shouts  were  raised  on  shore  to  direct  them.  They 
had  just  begun  to  move  again,  dragging  at  the  weight 
behind,  when  they  were  startled  by  a  sharp  challenge, 
at  a  few  fathoms'  distance. 

"  What  boats  are  those  ? "  said  a  voice,  which 
seemed  to  come  from  directly  above  their  heads. 

"  What  is  tnat  to  you,  whoever  }'ou  are  ?  "  answered 
the  coxswain,  looking  sharply  up,  and  supposing  that 
some  one  from  the  land  had  come  out  on  the  water 
and  was  playing  the  fool.  But  he  saw  his  mistake  in 
a  moment. 

"  Your  arms,  men  !  "  he  cried.  "  Here  is  treachery." 
The  oars  were  dropped,  and  there  was  a  clash  of 
iron,  as  each  hand  caught  the  musket  that  was 
nearest. 

"What  boats  are  those?"  said  the  voice  again. 
"  Speak,  or  we  fire." 

The  coxswain  answered  with  a  pistol  shot,  aimed 
in  the  direction  from  which  the  sound  came,  and  the 
ball  struck  a  stone  which  he  had  mistaken  for  the 
speaker's  cap.     A  dozen  rifles  flashed  in  reply,  from 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


19: 


the  crannies  of  the  reef.  With  a  loud  cry,  four  of  the 
Doutelles  men  reeled  on  their  seats,  and  rolled  over  into 
the  bottom  of  the  boat  ;  while  another  ball  had  passed 
through  the  coxswain's  arm.  Attacked  thus  suddenly 
by  invisible  assailants,  of  whose  number  they  could 
form  no  conjecture,  they  concluded  that  the  Iri^h  had 
betrayed  them,  and  that  they  had  fallen  into  a  trap. 
They  could  not  fl}^  for  they  were  encumbered  with 
the  barge.  They  would  have  backed  out  into  the 
open  water,  but  they  dropped  upon  the  boat  behind 
them  and  fouled  the  oars,  and  all  was  at  once  con- 
fusion. A  second  volley  into  the  entangled  mass  was 
answered  by  fresh  shrieks,  which  showed  how  the 
shots  were  telling.  Wild  yells  rose  from  the  beach. 
A  hundred  dark  figures  came  rushing  down  over  the 
shingle,  firing  guns  with  as  much  danger  to  friend  as 
foe.  Happily,  the  Irish  peasantry,  howe\xr  fond  of 
quarrels  which  could  be  fought  out  with  sticks  and 
stones,  and,  however  brave  they  might  be  in  regular 
service,  seldom  showed  an  inclination,  in  their  own 
homes,  for  close  quarters  with  deadlier  weapons.  One 
man  only— it  was  the  young  de  Chaumont— rushed 
round  to  the  farther  side  of  the  cove,  plunged  into  the 
water  and  swam  off  to  join  his  struggling  comrades. 
The  rest  ran  frantically  up  and  down,  whooping  like 
savages,  and  that  was  all. 

Neither  from  them  nor  from  the  boats  had  Goring 
now  any  attack  to  fear.  His  real  danger  was  from 
the  Doutelle.  Morty  Sullivan  comprehended  in  a 
moment  the  whole  situation.  The  news  of  the 
intended  landing  had  in  some  way  got  abroad,  and 
the  coastguard  at  Dunboy  had  heard  of  it.  To 
lower  his  remaining  boat  and  to  fly  to  the  help  of  his 
people  was  his  instant   impulse.     But  the  fates  were 

13 


194  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 


against  him  that  night.     The  boat  was  on  deck  under 
repair.     He  had  still  men  enough   in  plent\%  but  the 
best   seamen  were  away  in  the  two  gigs,   and   those 
that    were  left  were  awkward  and  unhandy.     When 
the  boat  was  brought  at  last  over  the  side,  the  after- 
tackle  was  let  go  with  a  run,  and  she  fell  stern  fore- 
most into  the  water  and  filled.     The  rattle  of  the  rifles 
and  the  cries  of  his  own  people  told  meanwhile  how 
unequally  the   struggle   w^as    going    on.      There  was 
now  but  one  thing  for   Morty   to  do.      The    flashes 
showed  him   where  the  coastguard  were    lying.     He 
brought  his   broadside   to  bear,  and  sent  nine-pound 
shot  flying  about   their  ears,   making  the  mountains 
echo  to  the   roar  of  his  artillery.     Seldom    or   never 
had    such    a    sound    disturbed    that    quiet    harbour. 
The    shot    struck    the  stones  and    sent    the  splinters 
flying.     The    Colonel's    men  dropped  into   the  boats 
behind    the   outer  ridge,    and    were    untouched  ;    but 
under    co\'er    of   such    a    fire    the    smugglers'   boats 
miorht   have  extricated  themselves  and   renewed   the 
fight  to  more  advantage  but  for  a  still  more  untoward 
accident.     The  reef  lay  in  a  line 'between   the   vessel 
and   the    landing-place    at   the   bottom   of    the   cove. 
Shot    after  shot,    flying  high,   fell   among  the  crowd 
on   the   shore.     The  horses  plunged   and  started   off 
with    their    carts.     Some  were  hit,    and    their    dying 
screams  struck  fresh  panic  into  the  people,  who  fled 
in    all    directions.       Morty    found    his    mistake    and 
stopped  the  fire,  but  he  could  do  no  more  to   help 
his  own  men. 

He  guessed  instinctively  that  he  had  been  again 
baffled  by  his  old  enemy.  More  bitterly  than  ever  he 
swore  that  one  day  he  would  have  his  revenge.  But 
swearing  would  not  help  him  now,     For  all   that  he 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV.  iQS 

could  tell,  Goring  might  have  a  hundred  men  with 
him.  Anyway,  the  chance  was  gone  of  landing  the 
cargo  that  night.  The  Doiitelle  could  not  move,  for 
not  a  breath  of  air  was  stirring.  She  might  herself 
be  attacked  next,  and  to  prevent  worse  he  sent  up  a 
signal  rocket  for  the  boats  to  return  to  the  vessel. 

It  was  easier,  however,  for  him  to  order  than  for 
them  to  obey.  They  could  not  leave  the  barge  with 
its  precious  cargo  as  a  prize  to  the  coastguard  ;  yet 
they  could  not  move  it  and  fight  at  the  same  time, 
which  they  would  have  to  do  if  they  were  pursued. 
The  Colonel's  rifles  had  been  silenced  for  the  moment 
by  the  Doiitelle  s  guns  ;  but  de  Chaumont,  when  he 
climbed  on  board  the  boats,  found  that  three  men  had 
been  killed  outright,  and  seven  or  eight  badly 
wounded.  He  used  the  respite  to  dispose  of  these 
most  conveniently,  and  to  set  the  rest  to  their  oars  to 
tow  the  barge  off.  So  savage  they  were  that  they 
would  have  left  it  to  its  fate,  dashed  in,  and  grappled 
with  their  assailants  ;  but  Morty's  signal  told  them 
that  they  were  wanted  on  the  ship,  and  they  began 
sullenly  to  struggle  back  as  best  they  could. 

Goring,  however,  did  not  mean  to  let  his  prey 
escape  so  easily.  The  night  was  absolutely  still.  The 
Doiitelle  would  have  to  lie  still  till  the  wind  rose. 
Clearly  enough  she  had  no  other  available  boat.  If 
she  had  they  would  have  heard  of  it.  Fortune  so  far 
had  eminently  favoured  him.  His  men  were  fresh  and 
untouched,  and  eager  to  complete  a  capture  which, 
besides  the  credit,  would  bring  them  each  a  handsome 
bag  of  prize  money.  Instantly,  therefore,  that  they 
saw  the  smugglers  retreating,  they  dashed  out  after 
them,  and  in  fifty  strokes  were  alongside  the  turf 
boat.     The  smugglers,  to  gain  freedom  of  movement, 

13* 


196  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

had  to  drop  their  tow  Hne.  Although  outnumbered 
and  encumbered  with  their  wounded,  they  turned 
gallantl}'  on  their  pursuers.  The  boats  closed,  and 
dark  as  it  was  there  was  light  enough  to  fight  by. 
Pistols,  cutlasses,  handspikes,  stretchers,  anything  that 
came  to  hand,  were  snatched  up  on  both  sides,  and 
used  as  occasion  offered.  With  the  clashing  of  steel 
and  the  rattle  of  shot  were  mixed  cries  and  curses, 
English,  Irish,  French  and  Spanish,  from  the  motley 
desperadoes  who  formed  Morty's  company.  If  they 
had  few  other  virtues,  they  were  brave  as  tigers.  A 
party  of  the  coastguard  had  taken  possession  of  the 
barge.  Half-a-dozen  of  the  smugglers,  with  de 
Chaumont  at  their  head,  leapt  on  board  and  drove 
them  off.  The  flashing  of  the  pistols  and  the  shouts 
of  the  combatants  told  their  own  tale  to  Morty  ;  but 
he  dared  not  use  his  guns  by  firing  into  a  black  mass 
where  friend  and  enemy  were  locked  together,  and  he 
could  onl\-  pace  his  deck  in  fury.  The  fight  was  hand  to 
hand.  Many  were  hurt  on  both  sides,  but  in  so  close  a 
struggle  shots  were  wild  and  cutlasses  were  entangled, 
and  few  blows  struck  home.  Some  grappled  with 
each  other,  fell  overboard,  and  were  rescued  by  their 
friends.  Again  and  again  the  cargo  boat  was 
carried  with  a  rush  ;  again  and  again  it  was  re- 
covered, and  the  assailants  forced  back.  At  length 
superior  numbers  and  the  solid  courage  of  the  Dun- 
boy  men  told  decisivel}'.  The  privateer's  crew  were 
embarrassed  by  their  wounded  comrades,  whom  they 
were  trampling  to  death.  They  found  that  they 
would  be  either  taken  or  killed  themsehes  unless 
they  could  retreat  under  the  guns  of  their  vessel. 
The  barge  and  its  contents  would  have  to  be  aban- 
doned to  its  fate. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  197 

De  Chaumont  was  the  last  to  leave  it.  Slightly 
made,  but  agile  as  a  panther,  he  had  sustained  the 
courage  of  his  men  to  the  last  moment.  Ordering 
them  to  clear  the  boats  of  the  inclce,  he  stood  himself 
alone  against  the  whole  force  of  the  attack,  till  he 
saw  that  they  had  extricated  themselves.  Then 
flashing  his  pistol  at  the  match  of  a  hand  grenade, 
which  he  picked  up  to  use  at  the  last  extremity,  and 
rolling  it  down  between  the  powder  barrels,  he  sprang 
overboard,  dived  under  the  pike  thrusts  which  were 
aimed  at  him,  and  joined  his  companions.  The 
engineer  of  the  mines,  who  was  in  the  nearest  boat, 
saw  his  action,  and  understood  the  meaning  of  it. 
He  leapt  into  the  barge  either  to  extinguish  the  shell 
before  it  could  burst,  or  hurl  it  into  the  sea.  But  it 
lay  flickering  where  he  could  not  reach  it  without 
shifting  the  barrels,  and  for  this  there  was  no  time. 
To  linger  would  be  destruction,  not  to  himself  only, 
but  to  half  his  comrades,  who  were  fastening  ropes 
to  the  prize  which  they  supposed  to  be  their 
own. 

He  darted  back,  shoved  off  the  boat  to  which  he 
belonged  with  a  desperate  effort,  and  called  to  the 
others  to  save  themselves.  They  were  barely  clear 
when  the  grenade  burst  and  blew  in  the  head  of  the 
nearest  powder  cask.  The  flash  of  the  explosion  illu- 
minated the  whole  harbour  of  Glengariff  The  rocks, 
the  woods,  the  old  castle,  the  spars  and  hull  of  the 
anchored  vessel,  even  the  nearest  mountains,  were 
lighted  up  with  the  momentary  splendour.  Morty's 
men  believed  for  the  instant  that  the  Coastguard 
and  their  commander  had  been  destroyed  ;  and  they 
sent  up  a  shout  of  triumph.  The  cry  was  answered 
by  a  defiance  as  loud  as  their  own.     But  the  prize  was 


igS  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

gone.      The  barge  and  all  that  it  contained  had  been 
blown  to  atoms. 

What  harm  had  been  done  to  their  party  they 
could  not  immediately  tell.  They  were  bewildered 
and  dazzled.  After  the  sudden  blaze  the  darkness 
was  thicker  than  before,  as  the  smoke  settled  down 
upon  the  water.  When  it  cleared  the  engineer's  boat 
was  found  to  have  been  sto\'e  in,  and  her  crew  to  be 
in  the  water,  holding  on  to  the  broken  timbers.  In 
the  other  boat  a  man  had  been  stunned  by  a  splinter, 
and  the  Colonel  was  hurt  in  the  leg.  Several  others 
had  been  wounded  in  the  fight,  but  no  one  had  been 
killed,  and  this  was  the  extent  of  their  loss. 

There  would  be  no  prize-money,  but  they  had  done 
their  duty,  and  saved  the  neighbourhood  from  an  im- 
minent danger. 

Taking  the  men  from  the  lost  boat  into  the  two 
others,  they  gave  a  parting  English  cheer,  and  pulled 
away  out  of  gunshot  from  the  Douteile,  which  happih' 
for  them  was  chained  to  her  place  by  the  stillness  of 
the  night. 

The  tide  was  now  flowing  in  the  bay,  and  even  if 
the  wind  rose,  unless  with  a  favourable  slant,  she 
would  be  unable  to  make  her  way  to  the  open  sea 
before  it  turned.  The  Dunboy  boats  rowed  home 
in  the  backwater  under  the  land.  Goring  gave  silent 
thanks  to  his  Master,  who  had  carried  him  success- 
fully through  so  perilous  an  adventure — silent,  be- 
cause he  rarely  and  reluctantly  put  his  thoughts  on 
such  occasions  into  words. 

More  than  ever  he  felt  how  desperate  the  conflict 
was  in  which  he  was  engaged  with  the  disordered  ele- 
ments of  the  country.  More  than  ever  he  felt  the  un- 
fairness of  leaving  him   to  fight  such  a  battle  on  his 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  I)  UN  BOY.  199 

own  resources.  But  the  character  of  his  creed  came 
to  his  help.  Everything  was  as  God  had  ordered  and 
could  not  be  otherwise.  He  was  grateful  for  having 
been  allowed  to  accomplish  a  piece  of  excellent  ser- 
vice. All  had  worked  together  by  a  clear  arrange- 
ment of  Providence.  If  he  had  not  been  waylaid  on 
his  way  home  from  Kilmakilloge,  he  would  not  have 
witnessed  the  night-drill  on  the  mountains.  Now  if 
only  his  messenger  had  reached  the  Admiral,  and  if 
the  Admiral  acted  promptly  in  sending  round  a  frigate, 
there  might  be  an  end  to  the  cruising  of  the  Doutelle. 
Under  the  most  favourable  circumstances  she  could 
hardly  be  clear  of  the  bay  till  the  following  noon. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  expectation  Goring  was 
not  entirely  mistaken.  So  reflecting,  and  without 
further  accident,  he  returned  to  Dunboy  by  sunrise, 
and  ordering  a  strict  watch  to  be  kept  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  privateer,  and  a  strong  body  of  fresh 
men  to  remain  under  arms  in  case  the  smugglers 
should  try  to  revenge  themselves  by  an  attack  on  the 
settlement,  he  went  to  the  rest  which  he  so  sorely 
needed. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Despotic  as  was  the  authority  of  the  chief  on  board 
a  privateer  or  corsair,  permitted  as  he  was  to  meet  the 
first  symptoms  of  mutiny  or  insolence  with  a  pistol- 
shot,  or  a  rope  from  the  yard-arm,  his  power  rested 
on  his  personal  qualities  and  the  consent  and  allow- 
ance of  the  general  crew.  Let  a  doubt,  either  of 
his  ability  or  even  his  good  fortune,  once  find  an 
entrance  among  them,  and  the  bond  that  held  them 


200  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

together  was  dissolved.  The  crew  of  th^Doutelle  had 
been  selected  by  Blake  out  of  the  many  that  had 
offered  themselves  on  the  strength  of  the  reputation 
of  the  vessel  and  her  commander.  But  in  this  respect 
they  were  like  the  rest  of  their  sort.  They  wanted 
plunder,  and  they  expected  to  get  it.  They  ex- 
pected success,  and  would  not  be  satisfied  with 
failure. 

Hitherto  they  had  been  well  enough  pleased  with 
Morty,  They  thought  him  too  distant,  and  too  much 
of  a  fine  gentleman,  but  he  had  done  a  handsome 
month's  work  with  them  off  the  Channel,  and  the  Irish 
expedition  they  had  put  up  with  as  an  episode  on 
their  way  to  the  West  Indies.  But  the  affair  at 
Derreen,  and  their  defeat  at  Glengariff  had  shaken 
their  confidence  altogether.  The  duel,  when  they 
heard  that  it  was  coming  off,  had  been  a  delight  to 
them.  They  had  assumed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
their  own  captain,  who  could  take  a  sixpence  from 
between  the  fingers  of  either  of  them  at  twenty  paces, 
with  a  pistol,  would  come  out  of  it  triumphantly,  or 
that  if  he  failed  they  would  be  allowed  their  share  of 
the  sport.  They  could  not  conceal  from  themseh'es 
that  he  had  been  beaten  with  dramatic  completeness, 
and  that  he  had  submitted  to  defeat.  He  had  not 
been  wanting  in  courage — far  from  that — but  he  had 
been  outdone,  and  had  come  out  of  the  thing  with 
ridicule.  The  last  affair  was  more  serious.  In  the 
first  place  he  must  have  trusted  in  some  one  who  had 
betrayed  him.  They  had  been  allowed  to  fall  into 
ambuscade.  Three  of  them  had  been  killed  on  the 
spot.  Two  more  had  died  after  they  had  been  brought 
on  board,  and  ten  or  twehe  had  been  wounded.  They 
had  done  their  utmost.     The}'  had  fought  desperately. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  201 

and  they  had  suffered  as  they  had  done  only  through 
bad  management.  They  had  been  attacked  by  a 
party  who  were  not  half  the  number  of  the  Don  tellers 
company,  and  the  plans  had  been  so  ill  laid  that  their 
comrades  left  on  board  had  to  look  on  helplessly 
while  the  rest  were  shot  down.  They  could  have 
borne  to  be  foiled  in  an  enterprise  which  had  pith 
and  marrow  in  it.  To  have  been  baffled,  and  baffled 
at  such  a  cost,  in  an  attempt  to  land  a  cargo,  might 
make  the  dullest  of  them  doubt  the  quality  of  their 
commander. 

As  long  as  the  calm  continued  the  Dotitelle  w^as 
fixed  to  her  anchorage.  Mort}-  Sullivan,  thinking 
nothing  of  the  disaffection  of  the  crew^  but  sore  and 
exasperated,  shut  himself  in  his  cabin,  leaving  the 
vessel  in  charge  of  Council  and  de  Chaumont,  with 
orders  to  see  to  the  wounded  and  to  cret  under  weicfh 
with  the  first  sign  of  wind.  Day  broke  at  last.  A 
few  uncertain  cats'-paw^s  w^ere  rippling  about  the 
water.  The  smoke  from  a  cabin  on  the  land  was 
rising  straight  in  the  morning  air,  but  signs  were 
about  w^hich,  to  an  experienced  seaman,  showed  that 
the  stillness  would  be  of  short  duration.  The  swell 
from  the  ocean  which  had  been  moaning  round  the 
rocks  the  night  before,  w^as  now  breaking  in  great 
sheets  of  foam  over  the  low  point  at  the  harbour 
mouth,  an  infallible  symptom  that  a  gale  was  blowing 
in  the  Atlantic,  and  was  on  its  way  in  from  the  sea. 
The  rocks  never  roared  as  they  were  roaring  then 
without  a  meaning,  and  wild  w^eather  w^ould  be  on 
them  before  many  hours  w-ere  past.  Unless  they 
were  to  remain  in  shelter  where  they  were  and  run 
the  chance  of  being  found  there  by  a  king's  ship,  not 
a  moment  was  to  be  lost  in  clearing  out.     If  the  wind 


202  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

came  from  the  westward,  as  it  seemed  likely  to  do, 
while  they  where  still  inside  Mizen  Head,  the 
Doutelle  herself,  spite  of  her  weatherly  qualities, 
would  be  unable  to  work  out  of  the  bay. 

The  orders  were  given  to  set  the  canvas  and  get 
the  anchor  in.  Instead  of  obeying  the  men  stood  at 
their  quarters  without  moving,  and  the  boatswain,  a 
Creole  from  Martinique,  desired  to  speak  with  the 
captain.  Morty  was  ill  to  deal  with  when  the  black 
fit  was  on  him.  Connell  and  de  Chaumont  were 
both  favourites  with  the  company.  They  called  the 
whole  crew  aft  to  hear  what  they  had  to  sa\-.  The 
boatswain  spoke  for  the  rest. 

There  was  a  storm  brewing  up,  he  said.  The 
blindest  eye  could  see  that.  If  a  gale  came  on  they 
would  be  on  a  lee  shore  on  the  most  dangerous  coast 
in  the  world.  Their  present  anchorage  was  safe  and 
landlocked.  The  people  on  shore,  as  far  as  they  could 
see,  were  well-disposed.  They  had  their  many 
wounded,  to  whom,  if  they  were  caught  in  a  tempest, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  pay  proper  attention,  but 
chiefly  and  essentiall\',  and  this  was  the  real  objection, 
they  had  their  dead  comrades  to  bury.  There  was 
ill  luck  in  going  to  sea  with  dead  men  on  board,  and 
they  would  not  throw  the  bodies  o\erboard  when 
there  was  a  Catholic  burial-ground  within  a  morning's 
walk,  where  they  could  be  laid  in  consecrated  soil, 
with  a  priest  to  pray  their  souls  out  of  purgatory. 
The  captain  could  not  expect  it  of  them,  much  less 
demand  it. 

The  tone  was  respectful,  the  language  reasonable, 
the  whole  company  unanimous.  Threats  would  be 
useless,  and  violence  fatal,  for  mutiny  was  in  their 
eyes  if  their  demand  was  not  complied  with,  and  to 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  20' 


have  called  up  Morty  would  have  probably  provoked 
a  catastrophe. 

Quietly,  and  expressing  the  strongest  sympathy 
with  them,  Connell  explained,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
exact  particulars  of  their  situation.  They  were  em- 
bayed in  a  deep  estuary,  from  which,  if  the  wind  came 
heavily  from  the  west,  they  could  not  work  out.  At 
that  moment,  however,  he  showed,  pointing  overhead, 
that  the  clouds  were  coming  up  from  the  south-west 
and  by  south.  With  the  wind  at  this  quarter  they 
could  hold  their  course  down  the  bay,  if  they  started 
immediately,  and  make  an  offing  before  the  worst  of 
the  gale  came  on.  The  reason  for  desiring  to  be  off 
so  hastily  was  merely  this.  They  had  cause  to  suppose 
that  their  being  on  the  coast  was  known  at  Cork  and 
that  the  same  south-west  wind  would  probably  bring 
some  frigate  in  search  of  them.  If  they  thought  that 
in  extremity  they  could  escape  on  shore  and  seek  for 
shelter  among  the  Irish,  he  was  obliged  to  tell  them, 
as  an  Irishman  himself,  that  the  sympathy  of  the 
people  would  be  found  on  the  strongest  side,  and 
that  every  one  of  them  would  be  given  up  and 
shot  or  hanged.  Their  care  for  the  dead  did  them 
honour,  but  if  they  could  clear  away  from  the 
shore  that  afternoon  they  would  be  at  Nantes 
three  days  later,  and  could  bury  them  in  their  own 
land. 

"  A  pretty  set  of  cowardly  wretches  we  have  been 
risking  the  ship  and  our  own  necks  for,  Mr.  Connell, 
if  you  are  telling  us  the  truth  about  your  countrymen," 
said  the  boatswain,  "  but  it  is  a  fact,  anyway,  about 
the  wind.  We  have  lost  faith  in  the  captain,  we  tell 
you  plainly.  None  but  a  fool  would  have  brought  us 
into  such  a  situation.     He  has  gone  wrong  on  the 


204  THE    TJVO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

brain,  but  if  you  and  AI.  de  Chaumont,  there,  will  take 
the  command " 

"  Don't  speak  of  '  Ifs,'  "  Connell  said.  "  You  may 
cut  us  in  pieces  before  we  will  let  you  lift  a  hand 
against  the  captain.  I  promise  }'ou  this  only,  that  you 
shall  hav'e  your  orders  from  me  till  you  ask  him  your- 
self to  take  the  command  of  ye  again.  If  all  goes  well, 
1  will  bring  )'ou  into  Nantes  before  four  days  are  out, 
and  then  you  can  do  what  you  will.  But  there  is  no 
safety  for  you  but  in  immediate  departure." 

The  possible  arrival  of  a  ship  of  war  was  a  new 
feature  of  the  case  to  most  of  them.  They  had  no 
ambition  to  be  hanged,  and  if  they  persisted  in  delay- 
ing, it  was  a  fate  which  was  by  no  means  impossible. 
After  a  conversation  among  themselves  they  sulkily 
returned  to  their  duty.  The  anchor  was  weighed. 
They  towed  the  vessel  off  with  their  boats  till  they 
were  clear  of  the  harbour,  and  then,  setting  every 
stitch  of  canvas,  down  to  their  lightest  studding-sail, 
the}^  stood,  closehauled,  down  the  bay. 

Morty  came  on  deck  as  they  passed  off  Dun- 
boy.  He  walked  slowl}^  to  and  fro,  watching  the 
spot  which  had  been  torn  from  his  ancestors  because 
they  had  been  true  to  their  country  and  their  creed. 
He  said  nothing.  He  must  have  been  aware  by  this 
time  of  the  temper  of  his  company,  but  he  did  not 
choose  to  notice  it.  He  merely  observed  that  they  were 
on  their  right  course,  and  retired  again  to  his  cabin. 
By  the  evening  the  wind,  which  had  stood  all  day  at 
south-west,  drew  into  the  west,  and  then  to  a  point 
north  ;  the  Doit  telle  was  bearing  for  Mizen  Head, 
they  counted  that,  when  clear  of  it,  she  would  have 
a  free  course  to  the  eastward;  but  for  this  they 
required  a  steady  breeze,  and  the  wind,  so  far  from 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  205 

being    steady,   blew  only  in  occasional  puffs  with  in- 
tervals of  absolute  calm. 

The  sea,  meanwhile,  grew  higher  every  moment, 
and  there  is  no  point  on  the  shores  of  the  British 
Islands  where,  in  such  weather,  there  are  higher  or 
uglier  waves  than  those  which  break  on  the  headlands 
at  the  mouth  of  Bantry  Bay.  They  sweep  in,  long, 
massive  and  unbroken,  from  the  deep  waters  of  the 
Atlantic  till  they  reach  the  submerged  rocks,  the 
remnants  of  the  abrasions  of  millions  of  years,  which 
fringe  the  south-western  Irish  coast.  There,  checked 
in  their  course,  they  tower  up  and  curl  and  break, 
take  new  directions,  and  propagate  themselves  in  fresh 
curves,  then  again  cross  and  thwart  each  other,  and 
make  the  bays  boil  and  heave  as  if  the  earth's  crust 
was  broken  through  below  them,  and  steam  was  rush- 
ing up  through  a  thousand  craters. 

When  the  gale  which  generates  all  this  tumult  is  in 
force,  a  vessel  driving  through  it  has  at  least  steerage 
way,  can  govern  her  own  movements,  and  can  hope  to 
work  out  of  it.  But  there  are  times,  before  and  after 
a  storm,  when  the  wind  fails,  and  the  weaves,  wantoning 
at  their  own  pleasure,  are  more  distracted  and  dis- 
tracting than  ever. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  windless  intervals  that  the 
Doutelle  found  herself,  now  rolling  helpless  with  her 
canvas  flapping,  now  caught  by  a  sudden  squall  on 
the  crest  of  a  great  roller  when  her  helm  had  lost  all 
power.  The  sun  went  down  green  into  the  sea.  The 
night  was  near  upon  them,  and  with  the  last  of  the 
light  they  perceived  that  they  were  losing  the  way 
that  they  had  made,  and  were  rolling  in  to  leeward. 
It  was  too  late  (even  if  they  could  have  got  their 
vessel   under  command)  to  put  back  into  Bantry  Ba\', 


2o6  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY 


for  they   were  too  far  to  the  southward.     The  crew 
clustered  in  angry  groups  under  the  buhvarks      Their 
fears  had  proved  true.     The  spirits  of  their  own  dead, 
who  ought  to  have  been  sleeping  in  their  graves,  were 
abroad    in    the   storm  ;  and    as   they   shuddered    and 
muttered,  the  great  green  billows  would  come  crash- 
ing over  and  breaking  on  the  deck,  and  sending  tons 
of  water    rushing    from  stem   to  stern.     At    last  the 
wind    came,    came    like    a    West    Indian    hurricane, 
breaking    off  the   crests    of  the    billows  and  lashing 
them    into    foam.     The    ship's    canvas    had  been  re- 
duced to  receive  the  stroke  of  the   gale.     The  main- 
sail had  been  reefed   down  to  a  sixth  of  its  size.     A 
staysail    and  a  storm  jib   was   all  that  was  showing 
forward.     The  staysail  flew  to  ribands  with   a  crack 
like  a  gunshot,  but  Mr.  Blake's  ropes  were  sound  and 
the  rest    held.     After  one  reel,  as   if  she  was   going 
under  and  for  ever,  the  Doutelle  rose,  shook   herself 
like  a  sea  bird,  flew  into  the  wind,  and  there  she  la}', 
rising  and  falling  in  the  swell,  with  the  storm  howling 
among  her  spars,  but  safe  now,  if  only  she  had  suffi- 
cient sea  room,  and  was  not  driven  in  upon  the  shore. 
In  Morty's  seamanship,  at  any  rate,  there  was  un- 
bounded confidence.     With  the  first  distress  he  had 
resumed  the  command.     The  immediate  danger  was 
over,  but  the  position  was  extremely  precarious,  and 
the  men  were  gloomy  and  discontented.     What  was 
to  be  done  next  ?     Morty's  opinion  was  strong  as  ever 
to    hold    on.     No  frigate  would    be  out   looking  for 
them    in    such  weather.       They  ought,  therefore,    to 
make    the  best  of  it  to  get    away.     The  vessel   was 
sound  and  seaworth^^     They  could  lie  to  through  the 
night  and  crawl  off  in  the  morning.     So  far  they  were 
in  deep  water,  and  the  storm  might  do  its  worst. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  207 

But    there    was    no    crawling    off  from    comrades' 
ghosts.     Throw  the  bodies  overboard  they  dared  not, 
while  they  were  all  assured  that  the  presence  of  them 
on  board  had  brought  the  gale  ;  and  they  demanded 
to  know  whether  there  was  or  was  not  any  harbour 
now  under  their  lee  where  they  could  run.     Morty 
could  not  deny  that  Crookhaven  was  but  a  few  miles 
from   them,  that   they  could   approach  it  in  daylight 
without  risk  even  in  the  present  weather ;  that  when 
they  were   inside    they  would    be    as  well  protected 
as  they  had   been  at  Glengariff,  while  their   presence 
there  could  not  be  detected  by  any  one  passing  out- 
side.    There  was  no  likelihood  either  that  any  force 
would   be  stationed   there  who  would  interfere   with 
them.     Probably  there  would  be  no  coast-guardsmen 
at  all,    or    none    that  would  ask  questions.     Connell 
knew  the  place,  so  did  Morty,  so  did  several  of  the 
crew,  and  all  those  who   had  seen   it  were  clamorous 
to  go  in.     It  was  madness  to  struggle  on   against   an 
Autumn  hurricane  with  a  port  accessible  so  close. 
»   Wilder    and  wilder  grew    the    night.     It   was    im- 
possible   to  get  any    way    upon  the    Doutellc.       She 
would  have  been  instantly  swamped  had  they  tried. 
Her  only  security  was  to  lie  head  to  wind,  and  in  that 
position  slowly  but  surely  drift  to   leeward.     In  the 
whole  ship's  company  there  was  but  one  exception  to 
the  opinion  that  with  the  first  streak  of  dawn  they  must 
make  for  Crookhaven.  That  exception  was  the  captain. 
Colonel  Goring  had  threatened  to  bring  a  ship  from 
Cork  upon  him  ;  Colonel  Goring  had  gained  the  ad- 
vantage on  every  occasion  when   they    had   encoun- 
tered ;  and  his  ill-luck  was  perhaps  not  yet  exhausted. 
Ship,  canvas,  cordage,  all  were  sound.     The  only  fear 
was    from   the  English  cruisers  ;  and    as  long  as  the 


2c8  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUX  BOY. 

storm  lasted  no  cruiser  would  leave  its  moorings.  He 
advised,  therefore,  that  they  should  make  the  best  of 
their  time  while  the  coast  was  clear.  But  he  could  per- 
suade no  one  to  agree  with  him  ;  it  was  new  for  one 
usually  so  daring  to  be  frightened  at  an  English  man- 
of-war  ;  they  had  come  and  gone;  they  had  been 
chased,  and  had  laughed  at  pursuit.  Bantry  Bay  was 
a  cul-de-sac  from  which  it  might  be  impossible  to 
escape,  but  Crookhaven  was  on  the  ocean,  and  when 
the  weather  allowed  an  enemy's  ship  to  come  in 
search  of  them,  it  would  equally  permit  them  to 
clear  awa}'.  To  neglect  a  harbour  of  refuge  in  a 
tempest  from  a  hypothetical  danger  of  that  kind  was 
so  unlike  the  confidence  of  Morty  Sullivan  that  they 
thought  again  that  his  nerve  had  been  overset.  The 
seas  were  still  washing  o\er  the  bulwarks.  Five 
bodies  sewn  in  their  hammocks  lay  below,  waiting 
for  burial.  The  wounded  were  suffering  from  the 
plunging  of  the  vessel.  Ever\-  single  man  was  for 
running  in.  Even  his  two  officers  could  not  under- 
stand his  obstinacy.  To  persist  would,  he  saw,  be 
useless.  The  crew  would  take  the  ship  from  him,  and 
perhaps  do  worse.  Since  go  in  the}'  would,  he  accepted 
their  decision,  and  himself  took  the  helm  to  pilot  them 
through  the  channel  at  the  entrance.  No  one  knew 
it  better  than  he.  Every  creek  and  corner  from  Kin- 
sale  to  Dingle  had  been  familiar  to  him  in  the  expedi- 
tions in  which  he  had  been  engaged  in  his  boyhood. 

As  the  night  wore  on  the  storm  swept  the  clouds 
off  the  sky  and  the  outlines  of  the  land  became 
gradually  visible.  As  soon  as  they  could  see  their 
way  the  Doiitclle  was  brought  round  before  the  wind ; 
she  flew  in  on  the  crests  of  the  seas — she  shook  her- 
self into  order  as  she  smoothed  her  water  under  the 


THE   TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  209 

shelter  of  Mizen  Head  ;  and  before  daylight  had 
fairh^  established  itself  the  scanty  inhabitants  of 
Crookhaven  when  they  rose  to  light  their  turf  fires  in 
the  morning,  saw  a  strange  vessel  ^\•ith  French  colours 
riding  quietly  at  anchor,  the  sole  occupant  of 
their  secluaed  haven.  Her  guns  were  concealed 
sufficiently  to  hide  them  from  those  who  did  not 
desire  to  see  them.  The  visit  of  a  French  trader, 
though  a  breach  of  the  Navigation  Laws,  was  always 
welcome.  Usuall}-  it  meant  brandy,  it  meant 
tobacco  ;  it  meant  a  market  for  the  woolpacks  and 
the  salt  fish.  If  the  Doutelle  had  nothing  to  sell  or 
buy,  the  hospitalities  of  the  place  were  not  the  less 
freeh'  offered.  Had  an  English  force  been  within 
reach,  it  is  possible  that  they  would  have  sent  word  of 
their  guest,  and  might  even  have  lent  a  hand  in  her 
capture.  But  so  far  as  feeling  went,  and  so  long  as 
nothing  was  to  be  gained  by  turning  against  them, 
the  French  were  better  liked  than  the  English.  The 
ro\-ers  were  open-handed,  and  spent  their  money 
freel}',  and  thus  had  full  liberty  to  remain  in  the  land- 
locked harbour  till  the  storm  abated,  while  ever}-thing 
which  the  people  could  do  for  them  was  freeh'  at 
their  command.  A  priest  was  found  who  had  been 
educated  in  France,  and  with  his  help  the  poor  fellows 
who  had  been  shot  at  Glengariff  had  honourable 
burial  within  the  walls  of  an  ancient  abbe}-,  their 
comrades  firing  volle}-s  over  their  graves.  When  this 
solemn  dut\-  was  discharged,  and  the  hurts  of  the  sur- 
vivors looked  to  and  dressed,  there  was  still  the  Doutelle 
herself  to  be  overhauled,  boats  repaired,  broken  rigging 
re-spliced,  and  the  hundred  damages  made  good  which 
always  grow  out  of  a  gale.  In  these  occupations  two 
days  passed  away,  and  nothing  had  appeared   to  dis- 

14 


2id  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 


turb  or  alarm  them.  On  the  land  side  no  hint  of 
their  presence  had  got  abroad.  No  official  presented 
himself  to  learn  who  they  were  or  whence  they  came. 
Seawards,  not  a  sail  was  visible  from  the  highest 
point  of  the  barrier  which  covers  the  haven  from  the 
ocean. 

On  the  second  evening  the  weather  began  to  take 
up.  The  wind  fell  to  a  moderate  breeze,  and  the  sea 
went  down  rapidly,  showing  that  the  gale  was  no 
longer  blowing  in  the  Atlantic.  Morty,  still  impatient 
of  delay,  urged  an  immediate  start ;  but  his  alarms  had 
hitherto  proved  groundless  ;  the  horizon  at  sunset  had 
been  absolutely  clear,  only  sky  and  water,  and  besides 
them  nothing  ;  they  would  have  time  enough  in  the 
morning ;  if  the  worst  came  and  they  were  chased, 
what  had  they  to  fear  ?  /\s  long  as  the  sea  was 
smooth,  they  need  not  fear  the  fastest  cruiser  that 
ever  came  out  of  Portsmouth  Harbour  ! 

Thus  sunrise  found  them  still  at  anchor,  but  every- 
thing ready  for  a  start.  Their  canvas  was  up.  They 
had  their  whole  mainsail  set,  foresail  reefed,  and  jib- 
boom  housed,  on  account  of  the  swell,  which,  though 
no  longer  vicious  was  still  considerable,  large  staysail, 
and  storm  jib  ready  to  hoist  when  the  anchor  should 
be  off  the  ground — fair  cruising  costume,  suited  to 
weather  not  yet  completely  settled.  The  Doutelle 
herself  had  been  smartened  up,  her  decks  clean  and 
white  as  in  a  man-of-war,  the  guns  scoured  bright, 
the  brass  binnacles — the  brass-work  everywhere — 
shining  as  if  they  were  silver.  They  expected  to  be 
in  the  Loire  in  fifty  hours,  and  the  privateers  on 
coming  into  port  always  made  a  point  of  appearing  in 
the  same  condition  as  their  rivals  in  the  regular 
service 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  211 


The  morning  was  brilliant.  The  wind,  having  been 
in  the  north  in  the  night,  had  fallen  back  in  the  morn- 
ing to  the  west.  But  the  sky  was  cloudless.  The  ba}' 
was  flecked  with  green  and  white  as  the  level  rays  of 
the  sun  shone  through  the  curling  crests  of  the  still 
breaking  waves.  A  few  country  boats  followed  them 
to  the  harbour's  mouth,  to  see  them  off  and  wish  them 
"  good  luck  and  God  speed."  They  stood  out 
leisurely  under  the  land,  Morty  himself  having  re- 
covered his  spirits  when  the  vessel  was  under  way, 
and  almost  wondering  at  the  weakness,  as  he  now 
deemed  it,  which  he  had  allowed  to  overcome  him. 
The  deck  of  the  Doiitelle  was  flush  fore  and  aft,  with 
a  clean  walk  from  end  to  end  between  the  guns. 
Abaft  the  mainmast  it  was  sacred  to  the  officers. 
Forward,  the  men  were  laughing  and  singing,  their 
comrades  now  disposed  of,  bodies  and  spirits  alike, 
themselves  looking  forward  to  the  black  girls  in  the 
Tortugas,  and  the  wild  life  of  licensed  plunder  which 
they  were  soon  to  be  enjoying  in  the  West  Indies. 
One  doubt  they  still  had,  indeed,  whether  Morty 
Sullivan  was  a  commander  to  their  taste.  They 
would  have  preferred  some  one  who  ^^'as  less  of  a 
gentleman  and  luckier  or  more  skilful  in  his  enter- 
prises ;  while  Morty,  on  his  side,  after  his  experience 
of  the  condition  of  a  privateer  captain's  tenure,  felt 
entirely  uncertain  what  his  own  course  would  be  after 
reaching  the  Loire. 


CHAPTER    XV. 
The   steward    was    getting    breakfast    ready    in    the 
cabin.     The  three  officers  were  pacing  the  deck  over 
his    head,    Morty   Sullivan   absorbed  in   thought  and 
saying  little.     A  seaman  had  been  sent  aloft  to  secure 

14* 


212  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


a  loose  end  of  rope  which  had  been  left  flying,  and 
had  finished  his  work  and  begun  to  descend,  when  his 
eye  seemed  to  be  caught  by  some  object  which  he 
could  not  clearly  make  out.  Steadying  himself  with 
an  arm  round  the  topmast,  and  with  the  other  hand 
shading  the  light  from  his  eyes,  he  looked  attentively 
for  a  minute  or  two,  and  then  hastily  descending  he 
came  aft,  touched  his  cap,  and  said,  "  There  is  a  sail 
on  the  horizon,  sir,  bearing  S.S.E.  I  thought  it  might 
be  the  Fastnct  Rock  when  I  first  observed  it,  but  I 
saw  the  Fastnet  distinct  and  inside.  She  is  hull  down, 
sir,"  he  continued,  as  Morty  looked  and  made  out 
nothing,  "  only  her  spars  and  upper  canvas  showing  ; 
but  a  ship  it  is,  and,  I  think,  a  large  one." 

A  ship  might  mean  a  New  England  trader,  some- 
thing in  their  own  line  of  business,  to  put  them  in 
heart  again  after  their  misadventures.  Snatching  a 
spy  glass  from  a  rack,  Morty  sprang  up  the  shrouds, 
twisted  a  leg  in  the  main-rigging  to  secure  himself, 
and  steadily  and  anxiously  studied  the  object  which 
the  seaman  had  described.  Apparently  he  complete!}' 
satisfied  himself,  for  he  slid  down  calmly  and 
deliberately,  and  rejoined  his  officers.  The  weary 
listless  look  had  gone  out  of  his  face.  Mouth  and 
eyes  were  set  and  firm,  with  a  cynical  smile  in  them. 
"It  is  as  I  expected,"  he  said.  *' My  evil  genius 
intended  to  have  it  so.  Well,  we  will  see  who  is  the 
strongest.  There  is  an  English  frigate  bearing 
directly  down  upon  us.  If  she  sees  us,  as  of  course 
she  has  or  will,  we  shall  be  talking  to  each  other  in 
an  hour  or  two.  So  much  the  better.  There  will  be 
work  at  last  fit  for  a  gentleman." 

Fighting  is  the  privateer's  man's  business,  but  he 
fights  only  when  he  cannot  help  it  with  an  antagonist 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  213 


bigger  than  himself.  Connell  took  the  glass  out  of 
Morty's  hand,  went  aloft,  and  took  a  long  gaze.  "  It 
is  a  ship,  certainl)%"  he  said,  when  he  returned  to  the 
deck,  "  and  to  appearance  she  is  heading  in  towards  us, 
but  she  is  twelve  miles  from  us  at  least,  and  for  all 
I  can  see  she  may  be  a  merchantman." 

"  My  dear  Connell,"  said  Morty,  "  no  merchantman 
ever  carried  yards  so  broad  as  yonder  vessel,  or  set 
up  so  taut  and  square.  Trust  me  to  know  an  English 
man-of-war  when  I  see  her.  I  have  the  list  below  of 
the  frigates  at  Cork,  and  if  this  is  the  Alolits,  as  I 
think  likely,  she  is  the  fastest  craft  we  have  yet  tried 
our  speed  against.  We  are  in  for  a  fine  race,  any  way, 
and  perhaps  for  something  besides.  She  is  rated 
for  thirty-eight  guns,  and  I  believe  she  carries  forty  ; 
they  are  all  small  nine-pounders  like  ours  ;  but  we 
have  a  lively  morning's  work  before  us." 

"  I  hope  that  for  once,  sir,  you  are  mistaken,"  said 
Connell,  "  but  if  it  be  as  you  say,  the  dog  need  not  jump 
down  the  leopard's  throat.  We  can  hardly  make  her 
out  against  the  sky  line,  and  she  cannot  yet  have  seen 
us  with  the  mountains  right  behind  us.  If  we  hold 
on  as  we  are  we  shall  run  straight  into  her  course. 
We  have  the  sea  open  to  us.  Why  not  bear  away 
under  the  shore  behind  Cape  Clear  Island  ?  She  will 
never  follow  us  among  those  rocks." 

"  For  the  best  of  all  possible  reasons  we  can  do 
nothing  of  the  kind,  my  friend.  As  the  wind  stands 
she  could  cut  us  off  if  she  saw  us  try  it,  and  they 
have  as  good  eyes  as  we  have.  See  us  she  must 
before  we  could  slip  away  between  her  and  the  land  ; 
even  if  we  did  get  by,  we  should  have  no  chance  w'xXh. 
her  at  all  running  free.  We  can  beat  her,  I  believe, 
working   to    windward,    and    that   is  what  I   mean  to 


214  ^/^^-''    ^'^^'<^^   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

try.  That  is,"  he  said,  scornfully,  "  if  it  pleases  the 
ship's  compaii}'  to  be  commanded  by  me  in  this 
business.     It  is  for  them,  I  suppose,  to  choose." 

He  blew  his  whistle.  "  Call  the  men  aft,"  he  said 
to  the  boatswain.     "  I  will  soon  know." 

They  were  all  on  deck  watching  the  stranger. 

"  My  men,"  said  Morty  to  them.  "  You  have  ill 
liked  the  work  we  have  been  after  since  we  came  on 
this  coast.  I  have  liked  it  ill  myself,  and  I  don't 
blame  you  for  that.  We  may  have  better  da}'S  before 
us — I  trust  we  have  ;  but  meanwhile  we  ha\'e  a  morn- 
ing's work  cut  out  for  us  \\diich  \\\\\  \.xy  what  we 
are  made  of;  a  man-of-war  from  Cork  is  bear- 
ing down  upon  us  as  fast  as  a  ten-knot  breeze 
can  bring  her  along.  I  thought  it  might  be  so,  and 
for  this  reason  I  was  unwilling  to  stay  at  Crook- 
haven.  You  were  not  satisfied.  You  had  your  way, 
and  here  she  is.  She  carries  twice  as  many  guns  as 
we  do,  and  three  times  as  many  men.  You  have  out- 
sailed these  cruisers  before,  and  you  think  you  can  do 
it  again.  On  one  point  of  sailing,  I  believe  }  ou  can  ; 
but  I  must  understand  first  if  you  mean  to  obey  my 
orders." 

The  desperate  company  that  formed  the  crew  of 
the  Doutelle  might  be  described  loosely  as  devils  ;  but 
ready  as  they  were  to  fight  and  fall  if  driven  into  a 
corner  without  flinching,  they  were  not,  as  devils  are 
said  to  be,  indifferent  whether  they  lost  their  lives  or 
kept  them.  They  were  in  a  scrape,  and  a  scrape  of 
their  own  making.  They  were  willing  enough  to  let 
Morty  or  any  other  person  get  them  out  of  it,  but 
they  had  not  yet  taken  in  the  actual  danger  in  which 
they  were.  They  had  never  \'et  met  a  ship  that 
could    catch    the    Doutelle    in    a    stern    chase.      Like 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  215 


Connell,  they  were  for  bearing  away  under  Cape 
Clear,  and  trying  what  speed  would  do  for  them. 

Morty,  for  answer,  spread  a  chart  on  the  roof  of  the 
companion.  The  wind  was  westerly,  with  half  a  point 
to  the  north.  They  were  standing  out  close-hauled 
from  Crookhaven,  intending,  after  weathering  the 
Fastnet  Rock  outside  Cape  Clear,  to  ease  away  S.S.E. 
on  their  course  home.  The  frigate  lay  exactly  in 
their  track,  and  the  two  vessels  were  approaching  on 
opposite  tacks.  But  the  frigate  had  the  advantage  of 
the  situation.  If  the  Doiitelle  tried  to  pass  through 
the  sound  behind  Cape  Clear  Island,  she  would  find 
the  frigate  waiting  for  her  as  she  came  out.  To  keep 
in  shore  among  the  rocks  and  islands  would  have 
been  dangerous  in  a  calm,  and  certain  destruction  in 
the  swell  which  still  continued.  The  chance  of  escape, 
in  Morty's  opinion,  was  in  the  opposite  direction  round 
Dursey  Head  and  the  Bull  and  Calf  Rocks.  Once 
there,  the  Doiitelle  would  have  open  water,  and  a  free 
course  for  her  own  sailing  qualities.  But  to  weather 
Dursey  Head,  as  the  wind  stood,  she  must  make  an 
offing  of  six  or  seven  miles,  and  this  she  could  hardly 
hope  to  do  without  coming  under  the  frigate's  guns. 

Whatever  other  doubts  might  have  been  entertained 
about  Morty  Sullivan's  qualifications,  there  were  none 
about  his  seamanship.  Every  man  in  the  ship's  com- 
pany was  easily  assured  that  what  he  said  about  the 
vessel's  capabilities  was  necessarily  true.  The  daring 
character  of  the  plan  which  he  proposed  was  infectious 
and  touched  and  roused  their  spirits.  If  there  had 
been  fault,  this  time  the  fault  was  theirs,  not  his.  "  You 
see,  my  men,"  he  said,  "  we  gave  her  the  chance  to 
find  us,  and  she  has  taken  it.  We  are  not  cowards  to 
be  frightened   at   the   chance   of    a  broadside.      The 


2i6  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


boldest  course  is  the  safest.  A  shot  or  two  will  warm 
us  this  cold  morning.  If  she  wings  us,  well,  we  are 
provided  for.  If  they  take  us,  they  will  hang  us  all, 
so  we  will  ha\'e  a  rocket  ready  to  light  in  the  powder 
magazine.  But  we  have  as  good  a  chance  of  winging 
her,  so  now  to  w^ork.  We  can  trust  the  rigging.  Set 
everything  that  she  will  carry.  Drive  her  through  it, 
and  let  us  see  what  she  can  do.  Get  the  cartridge 
boxes  up,  and  see  all  clear.  Keep  the  guns  lashed 
but  ready  when  we  want  them,  and  let  the  aftermost 
starboard  gun  be  trained  over  the  stern.  You  will  do 
your  duty  all  of  you.      I  see  it  in  your  eyes." 

With  a  wild  cheer  for  the  captain,  the  men  flew 
about  their  different  duties.  Morty  turned  to  Connell 
and  de  Chaumont.  ''  Gentlemen,  breakfast  has  been 
waiting  all  this  time.  It  is  ill  fighting  on  an  empty 
stomach.  By  the  time  we  have  finished  we  shall  see 
better  what  our  friend  here  means  to  be  after." 

Twenty  minutes  later,  when  they  came  on  deck 
again,  the  aspect  of  matters  was  considerably  clearer. 
In  the  first  place,  any  doubt  which  might  ha\'e  re- 
mained, as  to  the  character  of  the  vessel  outside,  was 
removed  once  for  all.  Morty  had  judged  her  rightly 
at  first  sight.  She  was  a  long,  low,  powerful  frigate, 
pierced  for  sixteen  guns  on  a  side,  with  bow  and  stern 
chasers.  Her  lofty  spars  were  struck  on  account  of 
the  weather.  She  was  taking  things  eas}%  with  her 
lower  canvas,  and  her  topsails  reefed,  but  the  pace 
at  \\'hich  she  was  coming  down  sho\\'ed  what  her 
speed  would  be,  if  she  chose  to  exert  herself  The 
sea  was  rising  again,  and  the  wind  freshening.  She 
lay  gracefully  over  as  the  squalls  struck  her,  till  her 
mainyard  almost  touched  the  water,  and  the  white 
paint  upon  her  bottom  glittered   in  the  morning  sun. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  217 


She  seemed  herself  Hke  a  thing  aHve,  so  Hghtly  and 
airily  she  lifted  over  the  swell,  and  sent  the  foam  in 
showers  from  off  her  bows.  Morty  himself,  ugly 
customer  as  she  was  likely  to  prove,  could  not  refuse 
his  admiration  for  the  most  beautiful  vessel  of  the 
kind  which  he  had  ever  seen. 

The  frigate  was  by  this  time  about  five  miles  west 
of  the  Fastnet  Rock,  bearing  N.N.W.,  and  looking  just 
outside  "  the  Calf,"  at  the  extreme  point  of  the  long 
Dursey  promontory,  which  must  be  weathered  by  any 
vessel  which  was  going  away  to  the  northward.  The 
Doutelle  was  coming  out  from  behind  Mizen  Head  on 
the  opposite  tack.  Staggering  under  a  crowd  of  sail, 
an  occasional  sea  washing  along  her  decks,  but,  with 
her  broad  beam  and  hollow  bows,  for  the  most  part 
lifting  easily  over  the  swell.  She,  too,  was  as  near  to 
the  wind  as  she  could  go,  her  course  being  nearly 
south-west.  The  /Eolus,  for  they  could  now  read  her 
name  through  their  glasses,  was  slightly  to  windward, 
and  if  both  vessels  held  on  upon  their  present  course, 
would  cross  the  Doutelle's  bows.  But  she  intended 
apparently  to  use  her  advantage,  bring  the  saucy 
rover,  which  had  given  so  much  trouble,  to  immediate 
close  quarters,  and  either  sink  her  or  force  her  to 
strike. 

With  this  purpose  she  kept  slightl}-  away  as  if  to 
run  the  Doutelle  down.  Morty  saw  what  she  was 
after.  He  had  himself  taken  the  helm  when  he  came 
on  deck.  He  had  been  watching  the  relative  sailing 
powers  of  the  two  vessels,  and  as  they  had  been  on 
opposite  tacks,  he  had  not  completely  satisfied  him- 
.self.  Before  he  would  allow  his  enemy  to  come 
within  striking  distance,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
ascertain  exactly  the  conditions   of  the  game.     The 


2i8  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


interval  between  them  was  every  moment  lessening, 
but  he  observed  with  satisfaction  the  frigate,  in  her 
eagerness  to  close,  throwing  away  the  superiority  of 
her  windward  position.  He  held  on  till  they  were  less 
than  a  mile  apart,  when  it  appeared  as  if  the  frigate 
was  coming  straight  into  him,  and  her  men  could  be 
seen  swarming  about  the  guns.  Suddenh'  he  gave 
the  order  to  go  about.  The  Doutclk  spun  round. 
Notwithstanding  the  intensity  of  the  excitement,  the 
crew  worked  with  the  precision  of  a  machine,  doubt 
and  disagreement  all  forgotten  ;  everyone  did  his 
utmost  and  his  best,  and  without  losing  her  speed  the 
smart  little  vessel  was  off  in  a  few  moments  in  a 
new  direction. 

The  Frigate  and  the  Privateer  were  now  on  the 
same  tack.  The  Aioliis  had  so  far  been  out- 
manoeuvred. She  had  lost  her  advantage  owing  to 
her  own  impatience.  She  was  as  near  as  possible  in 
the  Doutelle's  wake,  and  a  mile  astern  of  her.  The 
course  of  both  was  outside  Dursey  Head,  the  Calf 
Rock  bearing  N.X.W.  and  fifteen  miles  distant. 
Had  the  water  been  smooth  they  might  have  been 
able  to  weather  it,  but  the  set  of  the  sea  drove 
them  both  to  leeward,  while  the  immediate  question 
was  which  of  the  two  was  gaining.  If  the  Don  telle  could 
have  increased  her  distance  before  she  was  obliged 
to  tack  and  reach  out  again,  she  might  get  round  the 
point  and  escape.  The  rate  of  sailing  was  so  even, 
that  for  several  minutes  it  was  difficult  to  tell  which 
had  the  advantage.  But  the  privateer  was  doing  her 
utmost.  Her  masts  were  groaning  under  the  sail 
which  she  was  carrying.  The  frigate  had  not  shaken 
out  a  reef,  and  might  add  a  knot  to  her  speed  when 
she  [)leased.     It   appeared   too,  when   the  chase    had 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  219 

lasted  for  a  mile  or  two,  that  from  her  size  and  power 
she  held  up  better  against  the  sea,  and  was  regaining 
her  position  to  windward.  She  had  only  therefore  to 
hold  on  for  an  hour  till  they  came  in  with  the  land, 
and  Morty  must  either  then  go  about  and  fall  straight 
into  her  mouth,  or  run  up  into  Bantry  Bay  and  be 
captured  at  leisure,  or  else  be  driven  ashore  and 
destroyed.  The  end  seemed  so  inevitable,  that  the 
frigate  made  no  more  attempts  to  close,  but  was 
content  to  wait  the  issue,  which  could  not  be  two 
hours  distant.  Morty  himself  so  little  liked  the  look 
of  things,  that,  if  the  frigate's  great  length  had  not 
promised  that  her  superiority  would  be  still  greater 
before  the  wind,  he  would  have  worn  round,  taken  the 
chance  of  a  broadside,  and  run  back  to  the  eastward. 
But  there  was  no  hope  that  way.  At  the  worst  he 
could  run  the  vessel  ashore,  land  his  crew,  and  blow 
her  up.  But  he  had  still  an  hour  and  a  half  before 
him  to  try  what  better  he  could  do.  Perhaps  guess- 
ing what  he  might  attempt,  the  yEolus  hoisted  a 
signal  ordering  him  to  heave  to.  As  he  took  no 
notice  she  fired  a  shot  from  one  of  her  bow  guns  ;  the 
ball  fell  short,  and  so  did  a  second  with  which  she 
followed  it ;  and  Morty,  satisfied  that  he  had  nothing 
more  to  do  with  than  the  old  fashioned  nine-pounders, 
called  a  seaman  to  the  tiller,  and  bidding  him  to  hold 
on  upon  the  same  course,  determined  to  try  what  he 
could  do  with  his  own  particular  favourite,  the  long 
twelve-pounder  which  Blake  had  made  for  him  on 
his  own  design,  and  was  so  constructed  that  it  could 
be  slewed  over  the  stern.  If  he  could  but  cut  away  a 
spar,  or  a  few  ropes,  he  might  gain  a  precious  half- 
hour.  Once  round  the  point  of  the  Durseys  he  would 
have  nothing  more  to  fear. 


220  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

A  dancing  target  is  easily  missed  from  a  dancing 
platform,  but  Morty  had  commanded  an  Austrian 
Artillery  Company,  and  was  a  master  of  his  art. 

To  find  the  range,  he  fired  his  first  shot  at  the 
frigate's  hull.  The  white  splinters  from  the  bulwarks 
told  him  what  he  desired  to  know.  It  was  also 
evident  that  the  shot  had  disturbed  the  equanimity  of 
the  frigate's  company,  who  seemed  to  feel  as  some 
large  mastiff  might  do  who  had  felt  the  teeth  of  a 
bulldog.  They  were  more  astonished  at  the  im- 
pudence than  irritated  at  the  damage  done.  But  the 
officer  in  command  thought  again  that  it  was  time 
to  end  the  business,  and  after  the  bow  guns  had 
been  tried  once  more  without  effect,  the  reefs  were 
shaken  out  of  the  topsails,  and  the  ship  began  to 
quicken  her  speed  through  the  water. 

The  frigate  now  came  tearing  along,  as  if  she  were 
alive  herself,  and  was  feeling  the  fever  of  the  chase, 
with  the  men  at  quarters,  and  the  mouths  of  the  guns 
showing  ominously  at  the  open  portholes.  The 
Don  telle,  which  had  been  hitherto  jammed  up  close 
to  the  wind,  was  allowed  to  fall  off  a  point  or  a  point 
and  a  half,  which  gave  her  additional  speed,  and 
enabled  her  to  maintain  her  distance  for  a  short 
time  longer.  The  advantage  which  she  gained 
in  this  way  she  would  have  to  pay  with  interest 
when  she  came  up  with  the  land  and  had  to 
tack.  There  were  still  however  eight  miles  to  be  run 
first,  and  Morty's  one  chance  was  that  some  lucky 
hit  might  save  him.  Aiming  now  at  masts  and 
yards,  now  at  ropes  and  sails,  he  sent  shot  after  shot 
through  the  frigate's  tops.  She  with  her  short  guns 
could  make  no  reply,  and  he  fired  on  with  impunity, 
cutting  sheets  and  halyards,  and  sending  chips  flying, 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  221 


till  she  found  that  in  this  way  she  was  exposing  herself 
uselessly  to  a  chance  of  serious  damage,  and  that  she 
had  better  wait  at  a  safer  distance  for  the  inevitable 
catastrophe.  Before  any  important  spar  had  been 
injured,  therefore,  or  rope  severed,  she  checked  her 
way  and  drew  out  of  range,  and  the  two  vessels 
plunged  on,  the  frigate  half  a  mile  to  windward 
and  as  far  astern,  till  from  the  decks  of  the  Doutelle 
could  be  seen  the  clear  green  of  the  great  Atlantic 
billows  as  they  swelled  up  against  the  rocks  direct 
ahead  and   broke  over  them  in  thunder. 

A  more  particular  look  is  now  necessary  at  the 
coast  which  they  were  now  approaching.  The  promon- 
tory which  divides  the  bays  of  Ken  mare  and  Bantry 
terminates  in  an  Island  three  miles  long,  called 
Dursey,  or  including  the  rocks  round  it  and  outside 
it,  the  Durseys.  From  a  distance  this  Island  appears 
like  a  continuation  of  the  mainland,  and  is  in  fact 
divided  from  it  only  by  a  sound  or  strait  a  couple  of 
miles  wide  and  as  many  deep,  which  narrows  at  the 
bottom  like  the  neck  of  a  bottle  and  terminates  in  a 
passage,  in  places  half  a  pistol-shot  across,  leading 
from  one  bay  to  another.  Fishing  boats  use  it,  but, 
from  the  rocks  at  the  most  critical  points  and  from  the 
violent  stream  of  tide  which  runs  through,  vessels  of 
larger  size  never  venture  that  way  if  they  can  help  it, 
even  in  smooth  water  and  with  a  fair  wind  ;  and  no 
one  at  all  can  venture  at  any  time  without  tlie  most 
intimate  local  knowledge.  The  basin  of  the  sound 
itself  before  it  draws  in,  is  formed  by  Dursey  Island 
on  the  west  side,  on  the  east  by  a  long  arm  of 
land  called  Crow  Head,  a  sort  of  natural  pier  or 
breakwater.  Outside  this  Head,  at  a  hundred  fathoms 
distance,  is  a  dangerous  reef  called  the   Catrock,  the 


222  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUXBO\ 


passage  between  the  Catrock  and  Crow  Head  being 
held  impassable  in  an)^  weather  from  sunk  rocks.  Inside 
the  sound,  with  a  westerly  wind,  the  water  is  calm, 
the  Island  acting  as  a  shelter.  But  everywhere  else 
the  waters  roll  in  unchecked,  breaking  the  whole  line 
of  the  coast  from  Berehaven  to  Durse}',  and  it  was  at 
the  middle  of  this  line,  at  the  point  known  as  Black 
Ball  Head,  that  the  Dontelle  was  now  coming  up  to 
the  land. 

At  her  first  start  across  the  bay  she  had  looked 
outside  Dursey  Island.  She  had  fallen  off  till  she 
could  barely  fetch  the  Sound.  To  escape  the  frigate 
she  had  edged  in  still  further,  while  the  wind  had 
drawn  up  a  point  further  to  the  North  ;  she  had  thus 
just  weathered  Black  Ball  Head,  and  had  another 
half  mile  for  which  she  could  stand  on  between  her 
and  the  shore. 

It  was  no  time  for  fighting  now.  The  guns  were 
secured,  and  Morty  went  again  to  the  helm.  As  he 
had  failed  to  touch  the  frigate  in  aiu'  way  that  would 
check  her  speed,  his  position  now  seemed  desperate. 
Colonel  Goring's  settlement  was  but  seven  or  eight 
miles  off  under  his  lee.  He  was  tempted  for  a  moment  to 
dash  the  vessel  on  the  beach  there,  and  die,  as  became 
an  O'Sullivan,  in  a  last  furious  revenge  upon  his 
enemy.  But  there  was  still  a  chance  of  saving  both 
ship  and  men,  and  he  had  no  right  to  throw  it  away. 
No  one  spoke  to  him,  for  he  had  an  ugly  look 
in  his  face.  With  set  lips  and  arms  rigid,  he 
clutched  the  tiller,  and  watched  the  coast,  as  the 
DouteUe  rushed  in  under  the  shadow  of  the  cliffs. 
Every  rock,  every  indentation,  was  familiar  to  him. 
He  knew  that  the  bottom  was  clear.  He  knew  that 
the  frigate  would    not    dare    to    follow    him    in,    and, 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  223 


which  was  of  greater  importance  to  him,  that  he 
would  find  an  eddy  of  wind  blowing  off  the  land, 
which,  if  it  held,  might  carry  him  when  he  went  about, 
across  the  frigate's  bows  and  at  a  fair  distance  to 
windward  of  her. 

The  frigate  herself  lay  half-way  between  him  and 
Dursey  Head.  She  supposed  that  the  DoiiteUe  must 
pass  outside  it ;  and  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  her 
to  run  needless  risks.  She  had  but  to  wait,  and  the 
doomed  vessel  would  fall  into  her  hands  if  Morty  did 
not  plunge  her  desperately  upon  the  breakers,  as  to 
appearance  he  seemed  bent  on  doing.  On  flew  the 
Doutelle,  till  her  bowsprit  plunged  into  the  spray 
which  fell  back  from  the  cliff  as  the  great  rollers  burst 
upon  them.  The  officers  on  the  deck  of  the  yEoliis 
were  watching  to  see  her  run  upon  the  rocks,  as  they 
concluded  she  inevitably  must.  They  could  not  help  a 
cry  of  admiring  surprise  when  at  the  last  moment  they 
saw  her  sweep  round  like  a  racing  cutter  within  her 
own  length,  her  canvas  fill  on  the  other  tack,  and  the 
vessel  begin  to  move  fast  up  the  shore.  The  wind 
was,  as  Morty  anticipated,  blowing  right  off;  all  his 
canvas  drew,  and  fiercely  as  the  squalls  came  down  he 
held  his  course  straight  up  towards  the  outer  mouth  of 
Dursey  Sound.  The  frigate  filled  on  the  same  course 
a  mile  ahead,  but  being  without  the  same  advantage 
fell  off  towards  the  sea.  The  advantage  could  be  but 
momentary,  however,  for  off  the  Sound  the  Doutelle 
would  again  meet  the  true  wind  and  the  weight  of  the 
sea,  and  the  Mollis  would  resume  her  superiority. 
The  passage  through  into  the  Kenmare  River  was 
marked  in  her  charts  as  only  practicable  for  small 
boats  and  the  end,  though  protracted  for  half-an-hour, 
was  none  the  less  assured. 


224  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF   DUNBOV 


It  was  beautiful  to  see  the  smaller  vessel  flying  on, 
her  lee  gunwale  buried  to  the  water  line,  her  tall  masts 
bending  like  whips,  and  her  boom  and  the  bottom  of 
her  mainsail  dipping  in  the  water  as  the  waves  rolled 
under  her.  The  frigate  was  waiting  for  her  half  a  mile 
off  the  land,  with  her  fore  canvas  backed,  and  the  dis- 
tance between  them  was  rapidly  narrowing  ;  but  as 
long  as  the  Doutelle  had  the  wind  from  the  land  it  \\'as 
impossible  for  her  antagonist  to  close  with  her  ;  and 
for  three  miles  Morty  was  able  to  hold  his  course 
before  he  reached  Crow  Head.  Here,  however,  the 
coast  took  a  bend  to  the  south-east,  the  wind  followed 
it,  and  he  was  obliged,  at  last,  as  the  English  officers 
saw  that  he  would  be,  to  keep  away  to  the  sea  and 
face  them.  By  his  knowledge  of  the  coast  and  by 
admirable  skill  he  had  gained  the  weather-gage,  and 
could  cross  the  bolus's  bows,  but  at  so  short  a  distance 
that  it  seemed  like  madness  to  venture  it.  It  would 
not  be  a  single  broadside  which  he  would  have  to  face, 
for  as  the  Doutelle  came  up  the  foretopsails  of  the 
jEolus  were  filled,  and  she  too  began  to  fly  through 
the  water,  tossing  the  spray  over  her  bows,  on  a 
course  exactly  parallel  to  her  intended  victim's.  For 
Morty  it  seemed  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
stand  on,  with  his  great  antagonist  first  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  and  then  but  a  hundred  fathoms  to  leeward  of 
him,  over  the  five  miles  which  still  lay  between  them 
both  and  the  point  of  the  long  headland  round 
which  la}'  the  Doiitellds  chance  of  escape.  The 
privateer  crew  were  sent  below,  every  one  of  them. 
The  side  of  the  vessel  exposed  to  the  frigate's  guns 
being  buried  in  the  water,  the  deck  might  be  swept 
and  torn  to  splinters  ;  but  as  long  as  she  remained 
floating   they   would    themselves    be    out   of  danger. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  225 


It  was  no  time  for  fighting.      They  had  to  trust  to 
their  seamanship. 

Morty  alone,  of  all  the  company,  stood  at  the 
helm  ;  his  hair  streaming  in  the  wind  as  it  escaped 
under  the  folds  of  a  handkerchief.  Firm  as  iron  he 
held  on,  watching  and  avoiding  each  approaching 
wave,  and  heedless  of  the  storm  which  he  knew 
must  in  a  moment  descend  upon  him.  So  fine  it  was 
to  see  him,  so  daring  and  so  desperate  was  his  enter- 
prise, that  on  the  Aiolns  they  hesitated  for  a  moment 
to  fire  upon  him.  They  had  made  up  their  minds 
that  the  Rover  which  had  caused  them  so  much 
trouble  should  either  sink  or  strike,  but  they  would 
gladly  have  spared  so  beautiful  a  craft  and  so  gallant 
a  commander  if  he  would  only  surrender.  Seeing 
however  that  there  was  no  sign  of  lowering  the 
flag,  the  frigate's  broadside  opened,  gun  after  gun, 
first  singly  then  all  the  guns  upon  a  side  together.  At 
so  short  a  distance  every  shot  told.  The  decks  of  the 
Doutelle  were  ripped  open,  being  entirely  exposed  as 
she  lay  over  to  the  wind,  and  splinters  flew  from  stem 
to  stern.  The  marines  from  the  frigate's  tops  poured 
in  volleys  of  musketry,  and  the  musket  balls  could 
be  heard  rattling  when  they  struck.  For  five  minutes 
the  tempest  lasted.  No  structure  of  oak  and  copper 
could  bear  another  five  of  so  pitiless  a  tornado.  Yet 
the  point  of  Dursey  lay  half  an  hour  ahead  of  them, 
and  no  miracle  could  be  looked  for  to  save  a  crew  of 
pirates.  The  spars  and  cordage  of  the  Doiitelle 
were  so  far  untouched,  as  the  fire  had  been  directed 
upon  the  hull.  Morty  had  not  escaped  entirely, 
a  ball  had  torn  his  cheek  open  ;  but  he  was  still 
erect,  as  if  the  storm  which  had  been  pelting  him  had 
been  but  drops  of  rain.     Still  he  held  on,  never  look- 

15 


226  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY, 


ing  at  his  enemy,  glancing  now  at  the  sea  and  now  at 
the  land.  Rushing  on  together  the  two  vessels  thus 
reached  Crow  Head  and  could  look  into  Dursey  Saund. 
Half  a  mile  in  front  was  Catrock,  rising  black  among 
the  streams  of  foam  which  poured  down  its  sides  as 
the  seas  broke  over  it,  and  between  Catrock  and  Crow 
Head  were  a  line  of  reefs  under  water  among  which 
the  great  waves  burst  and  thundered.  There,  if  any- 
where on  earth,  lay  the  hopes  of  Morty  Sullivan,  for 
among  those  reefs  there  was  a  passage  into  the  Sound, 
narrow,  tortuous,  perilous,  through  which  he  had  him- 
self once  steered  a  smuggling  lugger  in  a  storm  ;  and 
if  he  survived  the  hail  that  was  rattling  about  him  he  be- 
lieved that  he  could  do  it  again.  Impracticable  though 
the  officers  of  the  yEolus  supposed  the  passage  to  be 
from  the  Sound  into  the  Kenmare  River,  they  conjec- 
tured that  Morty  must  be  intending  to  try  it  ;  but 
between  the  Catrock  and  the  Head  not  one  of  them 
had  any  notion  that  it  was  possible  to  pass  at  all. 
They  were  about  to  close  with  him  and  make  an  end, 
when  there  was  a  sudden  call  in  the  Doutelle  of 
"  about  ship."  Morty  sent  his  helm  down.  The 
crew  swarmed  up  from  below  and  handled  the  sails. 
Round  she  came,  no  longer  offering  a  broadside  mark 
to  the  Mollis,  but  turning  her  stern  to  her  and  rapidly 
leaving  her,  and  dashing  in  direct  upon  the  boiling 
cauldron.  The  frigate  held  on  upon  her  course,  believ- 
ing that  Morty  was  running  purposely  on  shore,  and 
herself  unable  to  follow  till  she  had  weathered  the 
Catrock.  In  another  moment  the  privateer  was  in  a 
turmoil  of  waters  as  wild  as  the  Maelstrom.  But  her 
pilot  had  not  overrated  the  accuracy  of  his  recollec- 
tion. The  blood  dripped  fast  from  his  shattered  cheek, 
but  he  never  left  the  helm.   On  the  gallant  vessel  passed, 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  iin 

the  dark  rocks  starting  up  all  around  her  in  the 
hollows  of  the  waves  ;  leaking  badly  in  places,  from  the 
bolus's  shot,  for  her  starboard  side  was  now  under 
water,  where  she  had  been  wounded  by  balls  which 
had  passed  through  her  deck.  Through  she  went, 
unscathed,  and  made  her  way  into  the  quiet  waters 
of  the  Sound.  He  shook  off  his  enemy,  and  by 
his  bold  manoeuvre  gained  a  mile  upon  him.  He 
was  for  the  present  out  of  danger.  The  cut  into 
the  Kenmare  River  was  now  but  a  mile  from  him, 
and  there  was  no  chance  of  the  frigate  again  over- 
taking him  before  he  could  reach  it.  He  might  be 
wrecked  in  passing  through,  or  he  might  be  sunk  from 
the  hole  which  had  been  already  made  in  him,  but 
that  was  the  worst  which  he  had  to  fear,  and  he 
had  one  more  unexpected  triumph  to  console  him. 
The  Mollis  did  not  mean  if  she  could  help  it  to  let 
her  prey  get  off.  Astonished  and  mortified.  Captain 
Elliot,  for  so  her  commander  was  named,  stood  on 
till  he  had  passed  the  Catrock.  Not  believing  that 
Morty  could  get  through  after  all,  he  too  then  went 
about  and  followed  him  up  the/  Sound  as  far  as  he 
dared.  Morty,  whether  he  was  to  escape  or  perish, 
would  not  leave  the  friend  which  had  stuck  so  close 
to  him  without  a  parting  benediction.  The  crew 
were  all  busy  stopping  leaks  with  rags  or  clouts,  or 
anything  which  came  to  hand.  He  himself,  leaving 
the  tiller  to  Connell,  loaded  his  own  favourite  gun, 
which  had  fortunately  escaped  damage.  The  water  in 
the  Sound  being  still,  there  was  no  longer  a  rolling 
platform.  With  his  bleeding  cheek  rested  on  the 
breech,  and  his  eye  steadied  to  the  precision  of  an  in- 
strument, he  covered  the  line  of  the  frigate's  masts  as 
she   came  behind  him.     The  shot  sped  upon  its  way. 

IS* 


228  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

It  caught  the  foot  of  the  foretopmast.  A  squall 
came  down  at  the  same  moment  off  the  cliff,  and 
Morty  saw  the  tall  spar  bend,  double  over,  and  then 
fall,  carrying  down  upon  the  decks  a  confused  mass  of 
rope  and  sail  and  splintered  timber.  The  jib-boom 
snapped  off,  the  frigate  flew  up  into  the  wind,  and 
there  she  lay,  till  the  wreck  could  be  cleared,  at  the 
mercy  of  the  winds  and  waves. 

Cool,  but  exulting  as  he  had  a  right  to  be,  Morty 
sprang  upon  the  binnacle  and  waved  his  cap  as  a 
parting  salute.  The  next  moment  the  Doiitelle  and 
her  Captain  had  passed  out  of  sight  round  the 
end  of  the  Island,  and  entered  the  narrow  channel. 
Both  to  him  and  to  Council  every  twist  and  turn 
of  it  was  familiar.  Years  had  passed  since  either 
of  them  had  seen  the  place,  but  impressions 
made  in  the  first  adventures  of  young  life  remain 
vivid  and  correct,  when  the  mature  knowledge  of 
advancing  age  becomes  crowded  and  indistinct.  They 
passed  through  their  second  peril  without  misadven- 
ture, and  were  safe  in  the  open  waters  of  the  Kenmare 
River,  and  never  more  would  any  member  of  the 
Doiitelle' s  company  raise  a  question  of  the  qualities  of 
their  commander.  They  had  double  reason  to  be 
grateful  to  him,  for  when  their  hurts  were  enquired  into, 
it  was  found  that  as  they  had  been  stowed  below  the 
water-line  while  the  vessel  was  under  fire,  they  had 
suffered  nothing  beyond  a  few  splinter  wounds.  Morty, 
who  had  taken  the  danger  upon  himself,  was  the  only 
one  of  them  all  who  had  been  seriously  injured. 

But  if  the  crew  had  escaped  danger,  such  had  not 
been  the  fortune  of  the  Doutclle.  The  shot  had  torn 
through  her  deck,  and  started  her  timbers.  The  holes 
in  her  side  had  been  plugged,  but   the  water  was  re- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  229 


ported  as  rising  in  her  hold,  and  unless  she  could  be 
beached  somewhere,  and  promptly,  her  escape  from 
destruction  might  prove  but  a  brief  respite.  Where 
to  go  in  such  a  dilemma  was  a  problem  all  the 
harder  to  solve,  because,  as  Connell  had  said,  Irish 
friendship  was  not  to  be  relied  on  in  times  of  mis- 
fortune. Morty's  own  Bay  at  Eyris  was  close  by 
and  safe,  with  level  sand.  But  Colonel  Goring  would 
be  but  a  few  miles  off,  at  Castlehaven.  The  JEohis 
it  was  likely  would  put  in  there  to  refit,  and  two 
hundred  blue  jackets  might  come  down  upon  him 
over  the  hill  while  his  ship  was  on  the  ground. 

Eyris  could  not  be  thought  of,  but  there  was 
another  spot  not  far  from  Connell's  home  at 
Darrynane,  where  for  Connell's  own  sake  they  would 
be  certainty  of  hospitality  if  not  demanded  for  too 
long.  At  the  wildest  point  of  Kerry,  where  the  deep 
Bay  of  Ballinskelligs  has  been  scooped  out  by  the 
waves  which  have  rolled  in  from  the  Atlantic  for 
millions  of  years,  a  peninsula  which  has  since  parted 
from  the  mainland  and  become  an  island,  still  shel- 
tered, as  it  had  done  for  ages,  a  small  haven. 
Tempted  by  the  situation  a  colony  of  maritime  monks 
who  lived  by  fishing,  had  built  an  abbey  on  the  shore, 
and  had  excavated  an  inner  boat  harbour  for  them- 
selves. The  monks  were  gone,  the  abbey  lay  in 
ruins.  The  sea  had  broken  a  passage  behind  the 
Island,  was  tearing  away  the  cemetery,  and  strewing 
the  beach  with  fragments  of  bones  and  coffins.  The 
neglected  boat  harbour  was  beginning  to  fill  up. 
But  the  mouth  of  it  was  still  available  at  spring 
tides,  and  happily  it  was  just  New  Moon.  Hither 
Morty  carried  his  wounded  Doutelle.  Here,  out 
of  sight  and    out    of  ken  (for   great    headlands    and 


230  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


mountainous  islands  lay  between  him  and  the  Sound, 
where  he  had  left  his  pursuers),  he  took  her  in  at  high 
water,  and  laid  her  gently  on  the  sands  as  she  had 
deserved  by  her  splendid  behaviour.  Here  too  we 
may  leave  him  to  repair  his  damages,  replace  his 
started  planks,  and  finally  make  his  way  back  to 
Nantes,  which  he  reached  successfully  at  the  end  of  a 
fortnight. 

For  the  frigate  the  issues  of  the  adventure  had 
been  inglorious.  Captain  Elliot  had  been  ordered  to 
capture  or  sink  a  privateer  which  had  appeared  upon 
the  coast.  He  had  met  with  her,  had  come  up  with 
her,  had  brought  her  under  his  guns,  yet  had  allowed 
her  to  slip  through  his  hands,  and  had  been  left  him- 
self with  ruffled  plumage  and  a  broken  wing.  He 
consoled  himself  with  the  hope  that,  after  all,  perhaps 
the  privateer  would  not  ha\-e  survived  the  punishment 
which  she  had  received,  and  had  sunk  in  the  Ken- 
mare  River.  For  the  escape,  his  charts  and  not  he 
were  to  blame,  for  the  charts  insisted  that  there  was 
no  passage  through  the  Sound,  and  had  there  been 
none,  the  Doiitelle  could  not  have  got  away.  After 
clearing  away  the  wreckage  and  getting  his  ship 
under  command  again,  he  decided,  as  Morty  expected 
that  he  would  do,  to  drop  into  Berehaven  to  put 
himself  to  rights,  and  take  counsel  with  Colonel 
Goring  as  to  his  future  movements.  He  had  been 
instructed  also  to  enquire  into  Goring's  duel  at 
Derreen,  with  the  subsequent  affair  at  Glengariff,  and 
to  send  up  an  impartial  account  of  what  had  taken 
place  on  both  those  occasions. 


THE   TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  231 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  firing  of  heavy  guns  in  Dursey  Sound  had 
been  heard  at  Dunboy,  and  Goring's  sanguine  tem- 
perament had  assured  him  that  the  work  was  being 
done  effectively,  and  that  they  would  hear  no  more 
of  Morty  Sullivan  and  his  clipper.  It  was  therefore 
with  no  small  disappointment  that  he  saw  the 
crippled  Aiolus  creeping  in  to  the  anchorage  before 
his  windows,  and  heard  from  Captain  Elliot  the 
unsuccessful  result  of  the  engagement. 

In  Ireland,  as  in  all  countries  pervaded  generally 
by  disaffected  feeling,  news  spread  rapidly,  no  one 
knows  how  ;  and  before  two  days  were  over,  Elliot's 
expectation  that,  after  all,  perhaps  the  Doutelle  had 
gone  to  the  bottom,  was  proved  to  be  baseless.  She 
had  been  seen  crossing  the  mouth  of  the  Kenmare 
River,  and  disappearing  among  the  Islands.  She  had 
been  beached  in  Ballinskelligs  Bay.  She  had  been 
repaired.  She  had  suffered  little  or  nothing.  She  had 
sailed  for  France  again. 

The  failure  filled  the  friends  of  the  French  and  of 
Morty  with  a  hardly  concealed  delight  ;  and  the 
shattered  spars  of  the  frigate  were  a  witness  of  his 
daring,  and  a  promise  of  future  triumphs.  The  satis- 
faction was  not  too  openly  expressed,  for  the  victory 
was  by  no  means  unqualified.  If  a  king's  ship  had 
been  baffled  and  beaten  off,  the  fight  at  Glengarifif,  and 
the  destruction  of  the  cargo  of  arms,  had  inspired  a 
wholesome  fear  of  Goring's  Protestant  colonists.  But 
for  this  very  reason,  it  was  the  more  likely  that  the 


232  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

disordered  bands  in  the  mountains  might  make  some 
desperate  effort  to  destroy  them.  Mort\'  himself 
might,  probably  enough,  return  and  lend  a  hand,  to 
revenge  himself,  as  soon  as  the  frigate  was  gone  ;  and 
Elliot,  considering  that  it  would  be  neither  safe  for 
the  public  interest,  nor  fair  to  Colonel  Goring,  to 
leave  him  to  control  on  his  own  resources  a  district 
so  exposed,  and  so  mutinous,  thought  it  best  to 
remain  at  Berehaven  till  he  had  communicated  with 
the  Government  at  Dublin.  Many  years  had  passed 
since  a  ship  of  war  had  been  seen  in  the  harbour. 
The  Irish  had  been  encouraged  by  the  apparent 
indifference  to  Goring's  requests  for  assistance.  They 
were  never  dangerous,  except  from  the  apath}^  of  the 
central  authorities  ;  and  with  the  risk,  so  real  and  so 
obvious,  of  French  assistance  being  supplied  to  them, 
if  the  temper  which  they  were  showing  was  allowed 
to  develop  itself  unchecked,  he  considered  that  he 
ought  not  to  leave  the  station  till  his  place  could 
be  taken  by  some  other  vessel  in  the  King's  service. 
He  wrote  at  length,  and  Goring  wrote.  Often  had 
Goring  told  the  same  story  to  deaf  ears,  but  he  was  sup- 
ported now  by  a  distinguished  officer,  who  had  been 
specially  directed  to  make  enquiries  ;  and  the  whole 
situation  was  set  out  with  a  clearness  and  a  weight  of 
proof  which  he  could  not  allow  himself  to  believe 
would  fail  in  commanding  attention.  Elliot  could 
entertain  no  doubt  at  all.  Experience  forbade  Goring 
to  be  confident,  but  he,  too,  hoped. 

For  three  weeks  they  waited  for  the  repl}\  At 
length  it  came.  The  authorities  at  the  Castle  had 
taken  time  to  deliberate,  and  they  answered  thus  : 

"  His  Excellency  was  not  insensible  of  the  service 
which  Colonel  Goring  had  rendered,  in  checking  the 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV,  233 

enterprises  of  a  dangerous  privateer.  The  offence  of 
smuggling,  serious  in  itself,  assumed  a  graver  com- 
plexion when  connected  with  the  introduction  of 
arms,  the  enlisting  recruits  for  the  enemy,  and  the 
encouragement  of  political  disaffection.  Supposing 
therefore  the  account  which  had  been  forwarded  to 
be  correct,  a  point  on  which  his  Excellency,  for  the 
present,  offered  no  opinion,  he  had  no  fault  to  find 
with  Colonel  Goring's  conduct. 

"  At  the  same  time,  he  could  not  admit  that  the 
practices  to  which  Colonel  Gordon  had  drawn  atten- 
tion, prevailed  to  the  extent  which  both  he  and 
Captain  Elliot  assumed  ;  his  Excellency  trusted  that 
the  lesson  which  the  smugglers  had  received,  would 
suffice  to  deter  them  for  the  future  from  a  renewal  of 
such  enterprises  ;  and,  with  respect  to  the  request  that 
one  of  his  Majesty's  vessels  should  be  stationed  at 
Dunboy,  his  Excellency  regarded  such  a  measure  as 
unnecessary  in  itself,  as  an  affront  to  the  loyalty  of 
his  Majesty's  good  Catholic  subjects  in  those  districts, 
and  as  interfering  with  the  important  duties  attaching 
to  his  Majesty's  ships  in  other  parts  of  the  Empire. 

"  In  conveying  to  Colonel  Goring  and  his  tenants 
and  servants  his  appreciation  of  the  courage  and 
loyalty  which  he  understood  them  to  have  displayed, 
his  Excellency  desired  further  to  remind  both  him 
and  them,  that  living  as  they  were,  surrounded  by  a 
population  of  a  different  race  and  religion,  it  was  their 
duty  to  avoid,  as  far  as  possible,  everything  which 
might  give  reasonable  offence  ;  and  his  Excellency 
thought  it  the  more  necessary  to  insist  on  this  point, 
as  he  had  learnt,  to  his  regret,  that  the  English  families 
whom  Colonel  Goring  had  introduced  upon  his  estate, 
did  not  conform  to  the  Established  Religion,  but  pro- 


234  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

fessed  opinions  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  excellent 
Prelates  to  whom  the  spiritual  care  of  the  country  had 
been  committed,  were  not  calculated  to  promote  peace 
and  good  feeling 

"  Trusting  that  nothing  which  had  been  said  would 
be  taken  as  reflecting  upon  the  conduct  of  Colonel 
Goring,  for  whom  he  entertained  the  highest  respect, 

"He  had  the  honour  to  be,  etc." 

The  same  messenger  brought  an  order  for  the  instant 
return  of  the  Aiolns  to  Cork,  in  terms  which  amounted 
to  a  reproof  to  the  Captain  for  having  been  so  long 
absent  without  orders. 

It  was  too  much.  This  was  all  the  thanks  then  to 
Colonel  Goring  for  five  )^ears  of  toil  and  danger.  A 
qualified  acknowledgment  which  was  almost  a  rebuke, 
and  a  definite  intimation  that  no  help  would  be  given 
him.  Why,  indeed,  should  they  help  him  ?  The 
Government,  it  was  clear,  only  resented  his  activity. 
To  do  anything  towards  keeping  order  in  any  part  of 
Ireland,  only  made  trouble.  The  Government  did  not 
like  trouble  ;  they  wished  him  to  do  nothing.  To  help 
him  would  be  only  to  encourage  him  to  exert  himself 
further.  If  he  was  knocked  on  the  head,  an  unprac- 
tical fanatic  would  be  out  of  the  way.     That  was  all. 

His  first  impulse  was  to  terminate  at  once  his  con- 
nection with  the  revenue  service,  where  energy  was  a 
crime  and  negligence  a  duty  ;  and,  indeed,  he  did 
finally  resolve  to  resign  his  commission  at  the  earliest 
favourable  opportunit}-.  But  he  concluded  to  wait 
either  till  the  country  was  more  settled,  or  till  some 
competent  person  could  be  provided  to  succeed  him. 
To  throw  his  appointment  up  at  once  would  be  a  public 
intimation  that  the  Government  disapproved  of  his  con- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  235 


duct,  and  would  thus   be  the  most  dangerous  encou- 
ragement to  the  rebelUous  spirit  which  was  abroad. 

It  was  not,  however,  the  refusal  of  support  and  the 
steady  discouragement  of  his  efforts  which  gave  him 
the  greatest  anxiety.  With  the  strong  and  vigorous 
community  which  he  had  formed  about  him,  a  com- 
munity of  Protestant  English,  who  could  furnish  at  an 
emergency  a  hundred  men  daring  and  strong  as 
Cromwell's  Ironsides,  he  had  no  serious  fear  of  the 
mountain  rabble  of  Cork  and  Kerry,  nor  very  much 
of  Morty  Sullivan's  Doutelle,  should  he  care  to  risk 
another  descent.  It  was  not  that.  It  was  the  ani- 
mosity, visible  in  the  letters  and  visible  in  the  whole 
action  of  the  authorities  towards  him,  against  the 
settlement  itself  which  he  had  formed.  He  had  built 
and  endowed  the  church  at  Glengariff  at  his  own 
expense,  in  the  hope  of  conciliating  the  Bishop.  He 
had  attended  the  services  there  frequently  himself„ 
taking  part  of  his  people  along  with  him  ;  and  his 
school  at  Dunboy  he  had  placed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Incumbent,  whom  he  had  allowed  the 
Bishop  to  nominate.  But  the  Bishop  had  appointed 
a  gentleman  to  whom  Calvinism  was  the  deadliest  of 
heresies  ;  who  interfered  with  the  management  as  if 
deliberately  to  insult  and  irritate  the  families  for  whose 
children  the  school  had  been  instituted  ;  while  the 
buildings  the  church  had  been  made  an  excuse  for  the 
continued  refusal  oi  the  registration  license  for  the 
Independent  chapel  at  Dunboy.  He  had  appealed  to 
the  Bishop,  and  from  the  Bishop  he  was  again  referred 
to  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  county,  of  whom  by  the  letter 
of  the  statute  he  seemed  entitled  to  demand  consent. 
But  again  the  Grand  Jury  pretended  that  the  Dunboy 
congregation  professed  opinions,  of  the  lawfulness  of 


236  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


which  they  were  not  satisfied.  The  question  was 
referred  back  to  the  Primate,  and  with  the  Primate 
it  was  left  to  be  considered,  and  never  was  considered. 
And  Goring  was  perfectly  certain  that  unless  they 
might  serve  God  after  their  own  fashion,  and  bring  up 
their  children  in  their  own  principles,  the  best  of  his 
people  would  certainly  refuse  to  remain  with  him. 
They  were  all  good,  upright,  and  brave  men  ;  but  the 
bravest,  the  most  intense,  those  who  were  most  to  be 
relied  on  in  times  of  danger  and  difficulty,  were  of  the 
stern  race  whose  faith  was  the  ruling  principle  of  their 
lives,  who  had  been  the  fighting  wing  throughout 
Europe  of  the  Protestant  army  ;  to  lose  them  would 
be  to  lose  his  right  arm  ;  yet  the  rugged  conscientious- 
ness which  made  their  value  would  itself  force  them  to 
leave  him. 

They  had  followed  him  to  Ireland  in  the  belief  that 
he  shared  their  opinions,  and  in  reliance  upon  the  Act 
of  Toleration.  If  the  benefit  of  the  Act  was  refused 
to  them,  they  gave  him  to  understand  plainly  that 
they  would  not  follow  him  into  compliance  with  the 
forms  of  the  Establishment,  and  would  go,  where  so 
many  of  their  brethren  had  gone  before  them,  to  New 
England. 

As  yet  nothing  serious  had  been  done.  The  con- 
gregation had  continued  to  meet.  The  Falmouth 
minister  had  preached  and  prayed,  and  the  meddling 
of  the  clergyman  in  the  school  had  been  disarmed  by 
judicious  diplomacy.  But  this  could  not  go  on  for 
ever.  Recent  events  had  drawn  attention  to  the 
colony,  and  the  power  and  usefulness  of  such  a  com- 
munity in  encountering  disorder  had  been  displayed 
in  a  remarkable  way.  Absurd  as  was  the  general 
administration   of  the  countiy,  Colonel  Goring  could 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  237 


not  believe  that  wilfully  and  with  their  eyes  open  the 
Government  could  desire  to  destroy  it  He  deter- 
mined that  he  would  go  himself  to  Dublin,  make  his 
way  into  the  presence  of  the  great  persons  there,  and 
learn  what  they  really  meant.  He  was  a  stranger 
to  the  ways  of  politicians.  He  had  never  moved  in 
political  circles,  and  his  experience  at  a  distance  had 
not  created  any  anxiety  to  be  more  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  them.  But  politicians  he  understood 
were  human  creatures,  and  even  a  superior  kind  of 
human  creatures,  and  he  was  anxious  to  see  what 
they  could  be  like,  and  to  learn  the  principles  of  their 
actions,  which  were  leading  to  such  unaccountable 
results. 

Among  the  Fellows  of  Trinity  College  he  had  a  near 
relative,  a  Mr.  Fitzherbert,  who  would  be  his  heir  if  he 
died  without  children.  Fitzherbert  was  thirty-five  years 
old  ;  he  moved  in  the  highest  society  in  the  Metropolis, 
and  was  a  critic  and  a  man  of  the  world.  He  had  not 
sought  admittance  to  either  of  the  learned  professions. 
Though  intimately  acquainted  with  every  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  had  never  invited  the 
suffrages  of  a  constituency,  and  had  amused  himself 
with  watching  the  action  from  outside  of  the  most 
corrupt  assembly  in  the  world.  His  kinsman's  re- 
puted character  had  interested  him,  as  something 
unusual  in  Ireland,  something  out  of  date,  and  ante- 
diluvian. He  had  often  invited  Goring  to  pay  him  a 
visit  ;  and  Goring  on  the  other  hand  felt  that  no  one 
would  be  better  able  than  Fitzherbert  to  explain  the 
situation  to  him.  Parliament  was  to  meet  at  the  end 
of  November.  The  session  was  to  be  an  exciting  one. 
and  every  person  of  consequence  would  be  in  Dublin 
for  the  occasion,  even  to  the  Viceroy,  whose  visits  to 


238  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY, 

Ireland  were  brief  and  rare  as  those  of  angels.  A  better 
opportunity  could  not  be  found.  His  kinsman  wel- 
comed his  proposal  with  enthusias-m,  and  added  an  in- 
vitation from  the  Provost  for  the  distinguished  Colonel 
to  be  a  guest  at  the  College.  It  was  arranged  that 
Mrs.  Goring  should  spend  the  weeks  that  her  husband 
might  be  absent,  with  a  friend  at  Cork.  She  had  con- 
sented reluctantl}-,  having  absolute  confidence  in  the 
gallant  defenders  at  home,  they  too  claiming  loudly 
a  right  to  be  her  body-guard.  But  Dunboy  was  a 
wild  place  in  mid-winter.  The  friend  entreated, 
Colonel  Goring  approved.  The  Governor  of  Cork 
offered  to  send  an  escort  to  Rantry.  The  lad}'  at  least 
was  in  good  hands  and  safe,  and  the  Colonel  went 
upon  his  wa}'. 

Irish  country  gentlemen  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  made  their  journeys  on  horseback.  Carriage 
roads  were  few,  and  being  unmetalled  were  cut  into 
ruts  a  foot  deep.  Men  of  business  travelled  in 
companies  for  protection.  Lords  and  ladies  were 
attended  by  retinues  of  servants  heavily  armed, 
for  Rapparees  and  Tories  were  still  on  the  prowl, 
VVhiteboys  had  sprung  out  of  the  earth  like  the 
mystic  warriors  that  grew  out  of  the  teeth  of  the 
dragon.  Dissolute  young  spendthrifts,  even  out  of 
the  upper  families,  were  not  ashamed  to  mend  their 
fortunes  on  the  highwa3\  Not  in  Kerry  onh'  but 
throughout  the  whole  of  Munster,  the  peasantry  were 
busy  tearing  up  the  landlords'  farms  at  night,  or 
carding  tithe  Proctors,  or  drilling  to  be  ready  for  the 
landing  of  the  French.  It  was  a  wild  scene  in  which 
those  who  could  find  a  home  elsewhere  would  not 
care  to  reside,  and  those  who  were  obliged  to  reside 
in  it  might  be  expected  to  stir  but  rarely  from  under 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOW  i^g 

their  own  roofs.  Habit,  however,  which  inures  us  to 
ev-ery thing,  rendered  hfe  in  such  circumstances  not 
tolerable  only,  but  delightful.  Irish  society  grew  up 
in  happy  recklessness.  Insecurity  added  zest  to 
enjoyment,  and  the  solid  Saxon  families  which  were 
spread  over  the  soil  under  Cromwell  and  Charles  the 
Second,  finding  themselves  unprotected  by  law  and 
left  to  their  own  resources,  adapted  themselves  to 
their  new  element  and  lived  for  the  day  that  was 
passing  over  them,  leaving  the  morrow  to  care  for 
itself.  They  had  a  charm  about  them,  peculiarly 
their  own,  a  charm  of  high  refinement  along  with 
habits  wild  as  a  red  Indian's.  They  were  reckless, 
careless,  infinitely  hospitable  and  utterly  extravagant, 
regardless  of  law,  but  graceful  in  the  neglect  of  it, 
only  too  like  in  a  new  element  to  the  original  Celts 
among  whom  they  had  been  planted. 

Colonel  Goring  was  passed  along  among  them 
from  mansion  to  mansion,  no  gentleman  being 
allowed  under  penalties  to  go  to  an  Inn,  when 
recommended  under  the  universal  rule  from  one  host 
to  another.  He  was  entertained  with  boundless 
cordiality.  To  some  he  was  known  by  reputation, 
with  others  from  his  service  in  the  army  he  had  a 
distant  acquaintance.  He  was  amused,  he  was 
horrified,  he  was  occasionally  interested.  More  and 
more  he  found  himself  speculating  on  what  could  be 
the  political  future  of  a  country  of  which  such  light 
beings  were  the  social  chiefs.  To  him  it  seemed  as  if 
the  English  settled  in  Ireland  were  playing  over  the 
crust  of  a  sleeping  volcano,  which  they  were  them- 
selves half  aware  of  and  tried  to  forget  in  light- 
heartedness.  Many  of  them  like  himself  were 
moving    to    Dublin    for    the    season,    and,    if  he    had 


240 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


pleased,  he  might  have  attached  himself  to  one  or 
other  party  for  the  entire  journey.  But  he  preferred 
his  own  society,  and  hurried  forward  under  pretext 
of  urgent  business. 

A  November  evening  was  closing  in,  when,  after 
encountering  no  particular  adventure  be}'ond  a 
faction  fight  on  market-day  at  Thurles,  where  a 
dozen  people  were  killed,  and  no  one  thought 
anything  about  the  matter.  Colonel  Goring  found 
himself  entering  the  Irish  capital.  He  was  almost  a 
stranger  there.  His  youth  and  early  manhood  had 
been  spent  with  the  army  abroad.  He  had  been 
some  time  in  Galway  with  his  friend  Eyre  ;  but  to  the 
Viceroy's  Court  and  the  smart  circles  about  St. 
Stephen's  Green  he  was  an  absolute  stranger.  Once  or 
twice  he  had  passed  through  Dublin  on  his  way  to  or 
from  England,  that  was  all  that  he  knew  of  it.  His 
road  lay  beside  the  Liffey,  along  the  broad,  level,  but 
ill-lighted  causeway,  which  formed  the  margin  of  the 
river.  Something  seemed  to  be  going  on,  for  a  steady 
stream  of  people  was  flowing  eastward  along  the 
embankment,  growing  as  it  advanced,  from  fresh 
additions  pouring  in  from  adjoining  streets  and  lanes. 
As  the  effervescence  which  he  was  about  to  witness 
proved  of  some  consequence,  a  few  words  are 
necessary  to  explain  the  occasion  of  it. 

The  administration  of  Ireland,  if  inefficient,  was  at 
least  economical.  If  little  was  done,  little  was  demanded 
of  the  people  for  doing  it.  There  was  neither  police  in 
city  or  country,  nor  systematic  organization  of  any 
kind  to  make  the  law  respected.  Some  communities 
are  so  situated  that  establishments  are  kept  on  foot 
which  receive  and  spend  the  Taxpayers'  money,  and 
pretend  to  do  much,  while  they  accomplish  nothing.  If 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  241 

Ireland  was  ungoverned,  there  was  no  charge  for 
neglecting  to  govern  it ;  the  revenue  exceeded  the 
expenditure  ;  there  was  an  annual  surplus  ;  and  the 
Government  in  London  and  the  Irish  politicians  could 
not  agree  as  to  which  of  them  had  a  right  to  the 
disposition  of  it.  Both  pretended  that  they  only  de- 
sired to  apply  the  money  to  the  good  of  the  country. 
But  the  Irish  view  was  that  it  should  be  kept  and 
spent  at  home,  while  the  English,  if  left  to  do  as 
they  pleased,  would  probably  appropriate  it  to  the 
enlargement  of  the  already  infamous  Irish  pension 
list,  on  which  impecunious  Court  favourites,  foreign 
relations  of  the  Royal  Family,  troublesome  orators 
in  the  English  House  of  Commons  whom  it  was 
desirable  to  silence3  or  still  more  ambiguous  connec- 
tions of  the  first  person  in  the  land,  had  for  gene- 
rations been  unscrupulously  quartered.  No  middle 
term  being  discoverable  between  views  so  opposite, 
and  each  side  being  obstinate,  the  Irish  members 
had  threatened  that  as  soon  as  Parliament  met 
(hey  would  refuse  the  supplies.  The  Castle  had 
tried  to  undermine  the  coalition  against  it  by 
corruption.  The  success  had,  so  far,  fallen  short  of 
what  was  usual  on  such  occasions,  and  there  had 
been  threats  in  consequence,  both  in  London  and 
among  the  supporters  of  the  Castle  in  Dublin,  to 
suppress  the  Irish  Parliament  altogether  and  either 
vote  the  taxes  in  the  English  Parliament,  or  else 
dispense  with  them  and  carry  on  the  Government, 
which  could  hardly  be  more  a  shadow  than  it 
already  was,  with  the  part  of  the  revenue  which  had 
been  permanently  settled  on  the  Crown.  The  time 
was  not  so  distant  since  the  Protestant  gentry  of 
Ireland    had     petitioned     to    be    relieved    of    their 

16 


242  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


nationality  and  to   be  taken   under  a  union  into  the 
English    constitution.      All    was    altered    now.      The 
pension  scandals,  the  destruction   of  their  trade  and 
the    recent  coquetting  of    the    English    Government 
with  the  Catholics,  had  kindled  a  feeling  of  exaspera- 
tion  and  indignation.     They  on  their  side,  supposing 
themselves    betrayed,    began    also    to    turn     to    the 
Catholics,  that  the  advantages  of    concession    might 
not  be  England's  only.     Thus  the   Irish  nationality, 
once  extinguished,  was   being  roused  into  life   again, 
and  at  the  mere  rumour  that  the   Irish    Parliament 
was  to  be  suppressed,  the   mob   of  both  creeds  burst 
out  as  they  had  done  in  the  time  of  Wood's  half- 
pence, in  a  furious  determination  to  resist.     A  union 
would  have  been   easy  at  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury, when  the   Catholics  were  crushed  and  the  Irish 
rt^oollen  and  shipping  industries  were  still  prosperous. 
It  would  have  been   possible  still,  had   there  been  a 
hope  that  the  trade  disabilities  would  be  repealed,  and 
that    the  revenue   would    be  applied   legitimately   to 
maintain  order  and   good  government.     In   the   face 
of    commercial   ruin  and  the  infamy    of  the  pension 
list,  those  who   least  believed  in  the  value  to  Ireland 
of  a  separate  Parliament  had  to  feel  that  the  present 
was  not  a  time  for  the  surrender  of  it. 

The  session  was  to  open,  as  has  been  already  said, 
on  the  day  on  which  Colonel  Goring  arrived  in  Dublin. 
The  Viceroy  had  landed  a  few  da\'s  pre\'iously  with 
the  latest  instructions  from  London,  and  an  impression 
had  gone  abroad  that  a  proposal  was  to  be  introduced 
for  the  modification  of  the  Constitution,  which  certain 
members  of  both  houses  had  been  bribed  into 
promising  to  support.  A  patriotic  demonstration  was 
in  consequence  about   to  be  held  at  the  doors   of  the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  243 


Parliament  House,  and  the  crowds  whom  the  Colonel 
had  fallen  in  with,  were  streaming  towards  College 
Green  for  the  purpose.  There  had  been  heavy  rain 
for  the  last  {(ny^  days.  The  Liffey  was  coming  down 
in  a  brown  flood.  The  streets  were  deep  in  mud,  and 
through  the  yellow  fog  the  link-boys  could  be  seen 
running  with  their  torches  by  the  side  of  chairs  and 
coaches,  the  occupants  of  which  were  either  bound 
out  to  dinner,  or  were  on  the  way  themselves  to  the 
opening.  The  throng  of  vehicles  was  thickest  at  the 
gate  of  the  Castle,  where  the  Viceroy  it  seemed  was 
entertaining  some  distinguished  party. 

Finding  the  crowd  grew  denser  as  he  advanced. 
Goring  left  his  horse  with  his  servant,  to  follow  at 
leisure  to  the  College,  and  pursued  his  way  on  foot. 
From  the  talk  of  the  people  round  him  he  gathered 
in  fragments  the  cause  of  the  excitement,  of  which  as 
yet  he  had  heard  little  or  nothing. 

"  Ah,  then,"  said  one,  "  the  bloody  Saxons  will  be 
taking  our  Parliament  away,  and  setting  our  necks 
under  the  feet  of  the  soldiers.  Bad  cess  to  the  race 
of  them.  'Twas  a  black  day  for  Ireland  that  brought 
the  heretic  divils  among  us." 

"  It  is  the  Parliament  men  themselves,"  said 
another,  "  that  is  selling  the  country  for  the  pen- 
sions ;  they  would  sell  their  souls  out  of  their 
bodies  for  King  George's  gold,  if  the  divil  hadn't 
a  mortgage  on  them  already,  so  that  they  have  no 
title  to  dispose  of." 

"  Little  good  the  Protestant  Parliament  ever  did 
us,"  said  a  third.  "  We  will  have  a  Parliament  of 
our  own  again  as  we  had  in  King  James's  days,  and 
those  will  be  the  boys  that  will  make  them  skip 
The  French  are  coming,  and  the  ould   owners  will  be 

16* 


244  THE    TWO   CHIEFS     OF  DUN  BOY. 


back  upon  the  land.  May  the  Lord  bless  them  and 
bring  them  safe  home." 

"  If  ye  wait  till  the  French  come  to  help  ye,  ye 
will  be  waiting  long  in  my  thinking,"  said  a  woman 
who  was  plunging  along  with  a  troop  of  Amazons 
about  her,  her  snaky  ringlets  streaming  out  from  under 
a  tattered  bonnet.  "  What  is  the  use  of  talking  like 
that.  Sure  the  gentry  would  be  well  enough  if  they 
knew  how  to  behave  themselves,  the  poor  cratures. 
We  will  take  possession  of  the  Parliament  House 
ourselves  for  this  night,  to  give  them  their  instruc- 
tions, and  may  be  they  will  do  better  in  time  to 
come." 

"  There  may  be  two  words  to  that  bargain,  Mary, 
my  lass,"  said  a  man  in  a  sailor's  dress,  who  had  just 
come  up  out  of  the  "  liberties  "  w^ith  a  party  of  seamen. 
<'  There  is  a  regiment  of  Dragoons  in  the  Castle 
barracks,  that  will  be  breaking  out  upon  ye  before 
the  night  is  much  older." 

"  Is  it  the  Dragoons  break  out  upon  us  ?  "  exclaimed 
the  woman.  "  And  who  will  be  giving  them  the  orders 
I  wonder,  and  don't  we  know  every  mother's  son  of 
them,  the  darlings  ;  and  won't  the  girls  here  melt  the 
hearts  of  them  with  the  glances  of  their  purty 
eyes  ?  " 

"  I'd  be  sorry  to  trust  to  that  security,"  said  the 
sailor.  "  Girls  are  apt  to  shut  those  eyes  of  theirs 
when  the  cold  steel  is  flashing.  Happily  we  are 
better  provided." 

And  indeed  the  mob  assumed  every  moment  a 
more  formidable  appearance.  They  were  joined  by 
compact  bodies  of  men,  armed  with  cutlasses,  pikes, 
and  pistols,  and  moving  under  orders  with  some 
form  of  discipline.     They  gathered  steadily  in  volume 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  245 


till  they  reached  the  open  space  in  front  of  the 
Houses  of  the  Legislature,  and  proceeded  to  take 
military  possession  of  the  Green  and  its  approaches. 
The  iron  railings  surrounding  the  Sanctuary  of  the  Irish 
Constitution,  were  torn  down.  Strong  detachments 
occupied  the  doors  and  the  flights  of  steps  which  led 
up  to  them.  Space  in  front  was  left  sufficient  to 
allow  the  members  to  drive  up.  As  Peer  or  Com- 
moner arrived,  the  door  of  his  carriage  was  opened. 
His  name  was  shouted  out,  and  was  greeted  with 
applause  if  his  patriotism  was  above  suspicion,  but 
more  often  with  howls  or  derisive  scorn  and  laughter. 
An  oath  to  be  true  to  Ireland  and  Irish  liberty  was 
then  proposed  to  him.  If  he  swallowed  it,  he  was 
allowed  to  pass  on.  If  he  resisted  or  refused,  his 
horses  were  quietly  turned  round  and  he  was  advised 
to  go  home,  or  worse   might  befall  him. 

Colonel  Goring  had  by  this  time  discovered  that 
in  leaving  Bantry  Bay  he  was  in  the  same  Ireland  as 
before.  Authority  was  as  feeble  in  Dublin  as  in  his 
own  peninsula,  and  the  sacred  ark  of  Irish  liberty  was 
the  centre  of  the  fire.  Most  of  it  he  understood  but  too 
well.  Local  allusions  were  less  intelligible  to  him  when 
members  peculiarly  obnoxious  were  reminded  of  their 
particular  delinquencies.  Mr.  Francis ,  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  with  one  of  his  colleagues  on 
the  Board,  had  taken  advantage  of  a  full  Treasury  to 
set  up  a  private  Bank,  using,  so  malicious  rumours 
said,  the  public  money  for  their  capital.  The  Bank 
had  failed,  causing  widespread  ruin.  The  Exchequer 
accounts   were   unintelligible  ;   but   the  estates  of  Mr. 

Francis and  his  friend  were  found  to  have  been 

secured  against   the  creditors,  and  also  to   have  been 
cleared  of  their  incumbrances. 


246  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

Mr.  Francis 's  name  was  a  signal  for  a  general 

yell,  and  he  might  have  been  roughh'  handled,  had  not 
the  woman  with  the  snaky  hair,  who  had  made  her  way 
to  the  front  of  the  crowd,  mockingly  protected  him. 

"  Arrah,  then,  Mr.  Francis,"  she  cried,  "  it's  yourself 
that  is  the  right  boy  for  the  place  ye  are  holding  ;  ye 
have  been  careful  of  the  surplus,  God  bless  ye,  that 
them  English  would  have  been  carr}qng  away  from 
us,  and  ye  have  put  it  safe  into  the  Irish  soil,  where 
it  will  be  for  the  redeeming  of  the  dirty  papers  that 
ye  set  going  upon  us  from  }'our  bank." 

"Ye'll  be  pleased  to  swear,  sir,  before  we  let  ye 
pass,"  said  a  big  man,  flourishing  a  sword  over  the 
unlucky  official's  head,  "  that  \'e  will  give  up  that  land 
of  yours  to  the  poor  people  that  ye  have  swindled." 

Mr.  Francis mumbled,  stuttered,  protested,  and 

looked  about  him,  angry  and  helpless. 

"  Don't  be  spoiling  the  handsome  face  of  ye  that 
way,  Mr.  Francis,"  said  the  woman.  "  What  are  ye 
afraid  of,  man  ?  Sure  ye  ha\-e  sworn  oaths  enough  in 
your  life,  and  broken  them  too,  that  you  are  choking 
now  when  we  are  asking  ye  to  be  an  honest  man  for 
once  in  }^our  life.  Swallow  the  words  do\\'n,  me  honey, 
and  ye'll  be  the  better  for  it  afterwards." 

The    unlucky  Mr.    Francis would  have  been 

forced  to  promise  to  disgorge  his  plunder,  had  not  the 
attention  of  the  people  been  called  off  by  a  more 
important  arrival.  Surrounded  by  servants  and  link- 
boys,  there  now  drove  up  no  less  a  person  than  the 
Irish  Lord  Chancellor.  His  attendants,  who  were 
accustomed  to  find  their  master  treated  with  a  respect 
second  only  to  what  was  paid  to  the  Vicero\;,  ordered 
the  crowd  imperiously  to  clear  out  of  the  way 
Finding  they  did  not   immediately  obey,   the  coach- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  '2A7 


man  flogged  his  horses,  and  struck  a  man  across  the 
face  with  a  whip  who  had  taken  them  by  the  head  to 
prevent  their  plunging.  The  Irish  aristocracy  were 
often  free  in  the  use  of  their  whip,  when  the  canaille 
were  not  sufficiently  cringing.  But  times  were 
changing.  The  spirit  was  beginning  to  breathe  which 
in  forty  years  was  to  burst  into  rebellion.  The  driver 
was  dashed  in  a  moment  off  his  box  ;  the  servants 
were  hustled  and  beaten  ;  and  a  paving  stone  was 
flung  through  the  carriage  window  as  an  intimation  to 
the  great  man  that  he  must  come  out. 

The  Chancellor,  Lord    B ,    was  an  Englishman. 

He  was  supposed  to  have  been  put  in  possession  of 
the  seals  for  the  express  purpose  of  suppressing  the 
constitution,  and  was  thus  the  especial  object  of 
suspicion  and  animosity. 

Seeing  that   it  was  useless  to   resist.   Lord   B 

alighted,  and  stood  fronting  the  mob  with  an  eye 
which  overawed  them  in  spite  of  themselves. 

"  My  Lord,"  said  one  of  the  best  mannered  of  the 
leaders,  "  we  are  sorry  to  be  rough  with  you,  but  we 
must  require  a  promise  of  you  this  night  on  your 
oath.  They  say  that  there  is  a  plot  against  the 
country,  and  that  yourself  is  to  be  the  principal  actor 
in  it.  If  there  is  none,  the  words  will  not  hurt  ye. 
If  there  be,  we  would  like  to  spoil  it  before  it  is  ripe. 
Ye  will  please  to  take  an  oath  that  ye  will  do  nothing, 
either  in  your  office  or  in  your  place  in  Parliament, 
against  the  Liberties  of  Ireland." 

''  Plot  !  "  said  the  Chancellor.  "  Are  you  all  mad  ? 
What  Plot  ?     What  mean  you  ?  " 

"  We  don't  know  the  rights  of  it,  your  honour,"  said 
the  same  man,  "  but  they  do  say  that  the  British 
nation    is    tired    of  quarrelling    with    the    Parliament 


248  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

here,  that  they  mean  to  make  an  end  of  it,  and  vote 
the  taxes  which  they  intend  to  take  from  us  them- 
seh^es.  God  help  the  poor  country  if  it  be  so,  for 
they  have  been  cruel  masters  to  us  already,  and  they 
will  be  worse  then." 

''  It  is  a  dream,"  the  Chancellor  replied.  "  The 
British  nation  have  no  such  purpose.  Emissaries 
from  our  enemies  in  France  have  been  telling  you  lies 
about  us.  The  British  nation  means  only  good  to 
Ireland,  and  has  never  meant  aught  else  but  good." 

"  'Deed  then,"  said  the  man,  "  the  British  nation 
knows  but  poorly  how  to  get  through  with  her 
meaning.  If  the  intention  is  good,  the  performance 
falls  mighty  short  of  it.  But  if  your  Lordship  spakes 
the  truth,  the  oath  won't  harm  ye.  Ye  have  onl}^  to 
say  the  words  as  we  will  put  them  to  ye." 

"  I  will  not  swear,"  the  Chancellor  said.  "  I  will 
not  degrade  my  office  by  taking  an  oath  at  the  dicta- 
tion of  an  armed  rabble." 

''  There  is  a  ground  apple  to  teach  ye  manners 
then,  ye  ugly-mouthed  villain,"  said  one  of  the  women, 
and  she  flung  a  stone  at  him  which  grazed  his  cheek. 
A  mob  is  like  a  wild  animal,  and  goes  mad  when  it 
tastes  blood.  There  would  have  been  a  general  rush 
in  another  moment.  Colonel  Goring,  who  had  been 
standing  a  few  yards  off,  seeing  violence  begun,  and 
too  well  knowing  what  the  Irish  were  when  they  had 
broken  loose,  was  springing  forward  to  help  his 
countr}'man  and  save  or  fall  with  him,  when  the  first 
speaker  who  had  addressed  the  Chancellor,  and 
appeared  to  exercise  some  authorit}%  strode  to  his 
side  with  a  pistol  in  each  hand.  "  Back  with  }-e,"  he 
said.  "  Will  ye  dishonour  the  good  cause  b\'  a 
cowardly  murder  ?     If  au}^   of  )'e    dare    lift  a    finger 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  249 


against  this  gintleman,  by  the  blessed  angels  I  will 
send  his  soul  to  Paradise." 

It  was  a  scene  for  a  picture — the  fierce  faces  of  the 
crowd  lighted  by  the  flaming  torches,  the  proud  old 
Chancellor  standing  pale  and  scornful,  menaced  with 
a  dreadful  death,  and  the  mob  leader  thrusting  him- 
self between  them  with  set  teeth  and  cocked  pistol. 

"  My  Lord,"  he  said,  "  no  hurt  shall  be  done  you  ; 
but  unless  you  swear  to  be  true  to  Ireland,  you  will 
not  enter  the  Parliament  House  this  night.  Bid  your 
men  turn  your  horses  ;  get  into  your  carriage  and  go 
home  with  ye,  and  give  thanks  to  God  that  He  has 
saved  ye  this  time  from  worse." 

The  rabble  yelled,  as  a  tiger  yells  when  his  food 
is  torn  away  from  him.  It  was  still  doubtful 
whether  he  would  have  been  allowed  to  retire  un- 
injured, when  a  voice  exclaimed  : 

"  What  will  we  be  doing  now  then,  as  his  Lordship 
has  been  plased  to  retrate  ?  There  is  the  good  gentle- 
men and  the  great  Lords  and  the  like  that  swore  as 
we  told  them,  and  they  are  just  waiting  in  their  places 
to  begin  the  business  of  the  night." 

"  Business  of  the  night  is  it  ?  "  said  another.  "  Sure 
the  business  is  to  hear  what  King  George's  deputy  has 
to  say  to  them,  and  who  is  to  tell  us  what  that  will  be  ?  " 

"  Ah,  then,"  cried  the  sailor,  addressing  the  woman  to 
whom  he  had  spoken  on  the  road.  "  'Twas  yourself  that 
said  it,  Mary  my  darling.  There  shall  be  no  message 
from  King  George  this  night,  but  there  shall  be  a 
message  from  ould  Ireland,  and  your  own  voice  shall 
give  it,  with  the  Chancellor's  big  wig  on  the  head  of 
ye.  Sure  the  jintlemen  that  have  sworn  the  oath  are 
good  Irish,  but  they  have  the  English  cross  in  them, 
and   it  will  do   no  harm    for  once  to  have  a  lady  of 


so  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


the  country  to  speak  to  them.  Come  along  with  ye, 
Mary,  and  we'll  sate  \'e  on  your  throne." 

With  the  mixed  feeling — half  of  glory  in  the 
Parliament,  as  a  national  institution,  half  of  contempt 
for  it  as  Protestant,  and  an  ELnglish  importation — 
the  mob  hurled  themselves  against  the  doors  of  the 
sacred  building,  which  the  ushers  vainly  laboured  to 
keep  closed.  They  swayed  along  the  passages,  and 
poured  into  the  august  upper  chamber,  where  some 
fifty  peers  and  half-a-dozen  bishops  who  had  passed 
the  ordeal  were  expecting,  in  pallor  and  anxiety, 
what  was  next  to  follow.  The  people  swarmed  in 
among  them,  scrambling  over  the  velvet  and  gold 
which  covered  the  chairs  and  benches,  jostling  against 
scarlet  robes  and  lawn  sleeves — the  potter's  coarse 
clay  against  painted  porcelain. 

Mary  Dogherty  was  conducted  in  state  to  the 
woolsack.  The  Chancellor's  gown  was  thrown  over 
her  back,  and  the  wig  squeezed  do\\'n  upon  her 
tattered  bonnet. 

"  Light  your  pipe  now,  Mary,"  said  one.  "  Ye  will 
not  be  complate  without  the  dudheen  in  the  mouth  of 
ye.  When  ye  have  drawn  a  whiff  or  two  to  compose 
yourself,  we'll  go  to  business,  and  you  shall  give  us 
your  spache  from  the  Throne." 

It  would  have,  probably,  been  a  speech  as  remark- 
able, and  perhaps  with  as  much  sense  in  it  as  many 
which  had  been,  and  will  be,  delivered  from  similar 
places,  but,  unfortunately,  it  was  not  delivered  after 
all.  The  interruption  came  from  the  source  which 
Mary's  sailor  friend  had  first  anticipated.  She  had 
finished  her  pipe,  had  flung  off  her  wig  and  bonnet, 
and  had  stood  up  to  begin,  when  a  shout  was  heard 
from  without,  of  "  The  Dragoons  !  "  and  the  sound  of 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  251 


the  sharp  trot  of  a  body  of  horse.  Rough  work  had 
still  to  be  done  before  an  Irish  legislature  could 
settle  down  under  its  new  Presidency  to  regenerate 
their  country. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Colonel  Gorinc;,  seeing  that  the  rioters  were  in 
possession  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  that  no 
effort  was  being  made  by  the  authorities  to  restrain 
them,  forced  his  way  through  the  crowd  to  Trinity 
College.  The  gates  were  closed,  but,  on  his  explain- 
ing that  he  had  come  on  a  visit  to  one  of  the  Fellows, 
he  was  admitted  through  a  wicket.  The  quadrangle 
was  thronged  with  students,  who  were  clamouring  to 
go  out  and  act  as  extemporized  policemen.  Trinity 
College  was  proud  of  its  loyalty.  In  the  absence  of 
any  regular  public  body,  the  students'  corps  could 
always  be  counted  upon  to  assist  in  keeping  the 
peace  ;  and  they  regarded  it  as  one  of  their  privileges 
to  be  called  out  on  such  occasions.  The  present  out- 
break had  been  so  sudden,  and  was  so  unusually 
violent,  that  the  Provost  had  hesitated  how  to  act. 
He  had  directed  that  the  students  should  be  kept 
within  walls  till  the  nature  of  the  disturbance  could  be 
better  ascertained,  and  he  was  himself  in  the  middle 
of  them,  trying  to  moderate  their  impetuosity,  when 
Goring  arrived. 

The  Fellows  were  all  assisting  their  Chief,  and  the 
Colonel  had  no  difficulty  in  discovering  among  them 
his  kinsman,  Fitzberbert.  Fitzherbert  introduced  him 
to  the  Provost,  to  whom  his  adventures  at  Derreen 
and  Glengariff  were  already  well  known,  having  been 
the  talk   of  Dublin.     There  was   no  leisure  for  con- 


252  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

ventional  politeness.  The  Provost  shook  his  guest 
heartily  by  the  hand,  telling  him  that  he  was  come  at 
the  right  moment,  and  a  rapid  conversation  followed 
as  to  what  was  best  to  be  done.  The  guardians  of 
the  peace  who  were  known  to  the  law  in  the  Irish 
Metropolis,  were  the  old-fashioned  watchmen,  with 
poles  and  lanterns,  who  called  the  hours,  shut  their 
eyes  to  street  irregularities,  or,  if  they  charged  a 
knave  to  stand,  who  would  not  stand,  let  him  go  as 
accurately  as  if  they  had  taken  their  orders  from 
Dogberry.  In  a  serious  riot,  such  men  were  abso- 
lutely useless.  The  Provost,  after  hearing  Goring's 
description  of  what  he  had  himself  witnessed,  decided 
that  a  couple  of  hundred  students,  whose  courage  and 
steadiness  could  be  relied  upon,  should  be  allowed 
out  under  Goring's  command.  The  Fellows  would 
not  be  behind-hand,  and  half-a-dozen  of  them,  Fitz- 
herbert  among  the  rest,  eagerly  joined  the  party. 
The  gates  were  flung  right  open,  and  they  filed  out 
into  the  Green. 

The  scene  was  now  wilder  than  ever.  By  the  glare 
of  torches  a  vast  mass  of  men  were  seen  surging  to 
and  fro,  agitated  and  excited  by  the  presence  of  a 
company  of  dragoons,  whom  Colonel  Goring  was,  for 
the  moment,  relieved  to  see  had  at  last  appeared. 
It  became  soon  evident,  however,  that,  although  called 
out,  they  had  received  no  orders  what  to  do  ;  and  the 
circumstances  of  their  arrival  were  characteristic  of  the 
time  and  the  administration. 

The  Chancellor,  on  being  turned  back  from  the 
House  of  Lords,  instead  of  going  home  had  driven  at 
once  to  the  Castle,  where  the  Viceroy  had  a  large 
dinner  party,  and  informed  him  of  the  condition  of 
the  city.     Never  was  ruler   more  taken   by  surprise. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  253 


L(}vd  had  come  from  England  full  of  conciliation 

and  love  for  the  Irish  Catholics.  Celtic  nationality, 
after  a  paralysis  of  half  a  century,  had  been  warmed 
into  life  by  Lord  Chesterfield,  during   his   celebrated 

five  years  of  office.     Lord had  pursued  the  same 

policy,  and  had  just  brought  the  strictest  orders  with 
him  from  the  English  Cabinet  to  persevere.  No  kind 
of  severity  was  to  be  shown  to  his  Majesty's  good 
Catholic  subjects,  who  were  to  be  wooed  back  into 
their  allegiance  on  Lord  Chesterfield's  principles. 
When  the  Chancellor,  therefore,  insisted  that  the  riot 
should    be    put   down    by    force,    and    immediately, 

Lord felt    his    hands    tied    by    instructions    so 

peremptory.  Force,  if  used  at  all,  must  be  used  by 
the  Civil  power,  not  by  himself.  He  enquired 
anxiously  where  the  Mayor  was,  and  desired  an  Aide- 
de-Camp  to  go  in  search  of  him. 

"  You  will  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  the  Mayor," 
said  a  gentleman  who  had  just  entered  from  the 
street.  ''  I  left  his  worship  at  the  Green  five  minutes 
ago.  He  was  sitting  on  his  horse,  telling  the  mob 
how  much  he  admired  their  patriotism,  and  asking 
them  if  they  would  be  so  good  as  to  go  home." 

"  Mr.  Mayor,"  said  the  Viceroy,  as  the  city 
functionary  entered  the  dining-room,  "  What  is  the 
meaning  of  this  disturbance  ?  You  are  the  chief 
magistrate  in  this  city.  You  are  responsible  for  the 
keeping  of  the  peace.  I  insist  that  this  insolent  con- 
tempt of  authority  be  suppressed  on  the  spot.  Call 
up  your  constables,  arrest  the  ringleaders,  and  bid  the 
rest  of  the  crowd  return  to  their  homes.  I  insist,  I 
tell  you.     There  is  not  an  instant  to  be  lost." 

"  My  lord,"  said  the  Mayor,  "  it  is  true  some  of  the 
poor  misguided   cratures  yonder  are   a  little  misbe- 


254  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


having  themselves.  But  your  lordship  may  believe 
me  it  is  no  harm  they  are  meanin^^".  They  are  only  a 
little  excited  like  and  expressing  their  feelings.  And 
why  would'nt  they,  for  the  matter  of  that  ?  Sure 
they  have  feelings  like  the  best  of  us.  I  have  been 
down  spaking  to  them  as  your  lordship  would  have 
me.  I  told  them  to  be  off  to  their  beds,  and  they 
should  have  all  they  were  asking  for,  as  't\\'as  fit  they 
should,  for  it  was  mighty  rasonable  every  word  of  it, 
,  and  well  pleased  the  lads  were  to  hear  me  say  that 
same,  and  shewed  no  disrespect  to  authority  at  all." 

"  Misguided  people  !  "  exclaimed  the  Viceroy  indig- 
nantly. "  Innocent  creatures  over-excited,  and  ex- 
pressing their  feelings !  And  here  is  my  Lord 
Chancellor  nearly  murdered  among  them,  and  the 
House  of  Peers  in  possession  of  armed  ruffians.  What 
language  is  this  ?  Call  out  the  city  force,  Mr.  Mayor 
I  repeat,  and  no  more  words  about  it." 

"  Indeed,  your  lordship,"  said  the  Mayor,  "  I  may 
call  as  ye  tell  me  ;  but  the  force  ye  are  spaking  of  is 
but  a  company  of  fifty  or  sixty  old  bedesmen  that  can 
just  crawl  the  rounds,  and  where  would  be  the  use  of 
sending  the  like  of  them  into  the  streets  this  night  ? 
Surely  every  mother's  son  of  them  is  stowed  away 
safe  in  his  own  house  between  the  blankets  at  this 
moment,  out  of  sound  of  harm.  And  where  better 
would  they  be  ?  For  if  they  got  their  heads  broke  to- 
night where  would  be  the  use  of  them  to-morrow  ? 
and  sorry  they'd  be  to  be  unequal  to  their  duties." 

"  This  is  intolerable,"  cried  the  Viceroy.  "  Tell  the 
guards  in  attendance  to  get  to  horse,"  he  said  to  an 
Orderly  in  waiting.  "  Let  a  hundred  men  ride  down 
at  once  to  the  Green. 

"That  v/ill  be  force  sufficient  to  enable  vou  to  deal 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


255 


with  the  disturbance,  Mr.  Mayor,"  he  said,  turning  to  the 
magistrate  ;  ''  and  it  concerns  my  honour  and  yours  that 
the  leaders  in  this  business  be  arrested  and  punished. 
You  will  accompany  the  troops.  You  will  read  the 
Riot  Act,  and  if  the  mob  does  not  then  disperse  you 
will  know  what  to  do.  Why  do  you  stand  hesitat- 
ing ?  "  he  continued,  as  the  city  functionary  showed 
no  signs  of  complying.  ''  Do  you  not  know  that  you 
are  answerable  for  the  peace  of  the  city  ?  Is  the  law 
to  be  obeyed,  or  is  it  to  be  broken  with  impunity  ?  " 

''  Your  lordship  speaks  of  the  law,"  answered  the 
Mayor ;  "  but  the  law  is  a  quare  thing,  and  it  is  well 
for  us  to  know  where  we  are  before  we  meddle  or 
make  with  it.  I'm  thinking  your  lordship  doesn't 
rightly  understand  the  law  of  this  country,  for  all  your 
having  been  so  long  the  ruler  over  us.  And  no 
wonder,  for  your  lordship  is  a  stranger.  Ye  come 
over  for  a  fortnight  in  the  year  to  draw  your  salary, 
but  ye  find  the  other  side  of  the  Channel  pleasanter 
living,  with  the  fine  park  and  mansion  ye  have  there. 
You  tell  me  to  read  the  Riot  Act,  and  you  are  not 
aware  that  we  have  no  Riot  Act  at  all  among  us,  the 
pacible  nation  that  we  are.  I  have  no  more  power  to 
direct  the  troops  to  act  than  your  lordship  has  ;  and 
if  your  lordship  will  have  the  poor  people  shot  down 
for  the  privileges  of  Parliament,  you  may  ^w^  the 
order  yourself" 

The  trampling  in  the  court-}'ard  and  the  clanking 
of  sabres  announced  that  the  dragoons  were  mounting, 
though  what  they  were  to  do  was  as  far  from  being 
settled  as  ever.  The  Viceroy,  with  the  fear  of  his 
masters  at  home  upon  him,  was  determined  to  take 
no  responsibility  upon  himself  if  he  could  possibly 
help  it.     The  Mayor  was  equally  determined  that  the 


256  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

Executive  Government  should  not  throw  off  a  duty 
upon  him  which  really  belonged  to  themselves.  The 
Mayor  had  the  best  of  the  argument ;  and  the  un- 
happy Viceroy  wrung  his  hands  as  the  shouts  came 
swaying  up  in  the  night  air.  As  a  middle  course,  the 
dragoons  were  directed  to  ride  down  to  the  Houses  of 
Parliament,  and  then  remain  drawn  up  to  see  whether 
the  mob  would  be  frightened.  There  was  just  a  hope 
that  the  sight  of  them  would  restore  order.  At  first 
it  seemed  as  if  the  desired  effect  would  be  produced. 
The  horses,  and  the  flashing  of  steel  in  the  torchlight, 
shook  the  nerves  of  the  mass  of  the  crowd,  who  but 
half  knew  why  they  had  come  together  ;  and  those 
who  were  in  the  front  rank  and  nearest  to  danger 
began  to  slink  a^^ay.  They  seen  recovered  heart, 
however,  when  they  found  the  scldiers  meddled  with 
no  one,  but  halted  and  continued  stationary. 

"  You  are  come  to  look  at  the  show,  then,"  said  a 
big  man,  who  had  been  active  in  the  attack  upon  the 
Chancellor.  "  Mighty  fine  ye  are  in  }-our  lace  and 
gold,  and  it  is  pleased  we  are  to  see  ye  on  the  people's 
side.  And  kindly  welcome  are  you  too,  young 
gentleman,"  he  said,  turning  to  the  Cornet  in  com- 
mand, "  if  it  is  not  a  woman  that  I  am  speaking  to 
as  it  is  like  I  may  be,  to  judge  by  the  down  that's  on 
the  purty  cheek  of  ye." 

He  patted  the  officer's  charger  as  he  spoke.  The 
young  Englishman  touched  the  horse  with  the  spur, 
which  sprang  forward  and  trampled  on  the  man's 
foot,  making  him  howl  with  pain.  Immediately  a 
shower  of  stones  rattled  about  the  dragoons'  helmets. 
Five  or  six  of  them  Avere  struck  in  the  face  ;  and 
galled  by  the  blows  and  by  the  insulting  cries  which 
rose  round  them,  they  were  handling  the  hilts  of  the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  2^7 

sabres,  when  at  the  moment  the  corps  from  the  College 
appeared  on  the  scene  and  called  off  the  attention 
of  the  mob.  Well  led,  and  eager  for  a  fight,  the 
students  struck  in  with  a  will.  They  were  armed  only 
with  sticks  ;  but,  like  the  Scythian  chiefs,  who  used 
their  hunting  whips  to  suppress  a  serv-ile  insurrection, 
the  young  Anglo-Irish  gentlemen  would  have  dis- 
dained to  employ  nobler  weapons  on  a  race  whom 
they  despised  ;  and  had  the  occasion  been  an  ordinary 
one,  and  if  the  odds  had  not  been  too  heavily  dispro- 
portioned,  they  would  swiftly  have  cleared  the  square. 
But  the  mob  were  ten  to  one,  and  for  some  reason 
were  exceptionally  determined.  Many  of  them  had 
cutlasses,  and  some  had  pistols  ;  and  Goring  was 
forced  to  hold  the  students  in  hand,  watching  his 
opportunity,  and  noting  scornfully  the  inaction  of  the 
military,  too  like  what  he  was  familiar  with  in  Kerr}-, 
when  a  fresh  party  of  horse,  led  by  a  distinguished- 
looking  man  in  a  General's  uniform,  dashed  in  upon 
the  scene. 

The  Viceroy  had  been  beaten  by  the  Mayor.  Eng- 
lish official  timidity  had  been  no  match  for  Irish 
cunning,  and  half  an  hour  was  wasted  after  it  had 
become  known  that  the  mob  had  not  dispersed,  and 
were  attacking  the  first  detachment  of  troops,  in  dis- 
cussing whether  they  ought  not  to  be  withdrawn. 
The  commander-in-chief  of  the  English  garrison   in 

Ireland  was  the   celebrated   Lord   A .      He   was 

one  of  the  Viceroy's  guests  for  the  evening,  and  had 
listened  with  angry  impatience  to  the  useless  argu- 
ment. An  officer,  whom  he  had  sent  out  to  make 
enqxiiries,  came  back  with  the  news  that  stones  were 
still  flying.  One  of  the  men  had  been  struck  from  his 
horse,  and  it  was   feared   had  been   killed.     The   rest 

17 


258  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

were  becoming  ungovernable,  and,  if  they  were  not  to 
act,  were  demanding  to  be  recalled.  The  Viceroy  was 
still  wrangling  with  the  Ma)'or,  who  had  entrenched 
himself  and  could  not  be  moved. 

*'  You   will  make  nothing  of  this  fellow,  sir,"  said 

Lord  A ,  with  a  look  of  contempt.     "  The   rascal 

only  wants  to  gain  time.  In  a  few  minutes  the  mob 
will  be  in  possession  of  the  whole  town  this  side  of 
the  river,  and  we  shall  have  them  looking  in  upon  us 
here.  It  is  never  safe  to  turn  your  back  upon  an 
Irishman.  Leave  it  to  me.  Give  me  orders,  or  let 
me  act  on  my  own  responsibility.  I  am  not  afraid. 
Unless  this  riot  is  stopped,  the  Castle  will  be  on  fire 
before  the  morning." 

"Go  then,   A ,"  acquiesced   the  poor  Viceroy. 

"  Go.  Do  the  best  you  can.  Onl)^  be  gentle.  No 
unnecessary  violence." 

"  Never  fear,  my  Lord,"  answered  the  General.  "  I 
will  be  gentle  as  a  turtle-dove.  Violence  !"  he  muttered, 
as  he  rushed  downstairs,  and  sprang  on  his  horse, 
cr.lling  the  remaining  dragoons  to  follow  him.  "  It  is 
not  violence  which  leads  to  scenes  like  this.  It  is  the 
imbecility  which  tempts  the  wretched  fools  into  believ- 
ing that  we  are  afraid  of  them,  and  deludes  them  into 
destruction." 

With  drawn  sabres,  they  galloped  down  to  join 
their  comrades,  trampling  on  everyone  that  got  in 
their  way.  The  company  which  had  been  so  long 
suffering  under    the  stone  throwing,  received    them 

with  a  shout  of  relief.      For  one  moment  Lord  A 

paused.  He  seized  a  ringleader  by  the  collar,  dragged 
him  back  into  his  own  ranks,  and  ordered  a  sergeant 
to  pinion  him.  In  a  clear,  high  voice,  which  could  be 
heard  above  the  roar  of  the  crowd,  he  gave  them  a 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV.  259 

last  chance  to  disperse.  He  was  answered  by  a  paving 
stone  which  struck  his  corselet,  and  shook  him  in  his 
saddle,  and  at  once  he  gave  the  order  to  charge. 

All  was  ended  then.  The  Irish  are  only  dangerous 
to  those  who  are  afraid  of  them.  Shrieking,  yelling, 
swearing,  they  wavered,  they  broke  ;  they  fled  up  th2 
side  streets,  both  detachments  of  dragoons  hewing  at 
them  in  full  pursuit,  and  the  students  avenging  their 
own  broken  heads  on  the  scattering  masses.  The 
students  share  in  the  punishment  was  a  merciful  one, 
for  they  had  only  their  blackthorns  to  strike  with.  It 
must  be  allowed  to  the  soldiers'  credit,  too,  considering 
how  they  had  been  tried,  that  the  women  and  the  old 
and  the  young  they  touched  only  with  the  flat  of  their 
swords,  reserving  edge  and  point  for  those  who  had 
been  active  in  n^ischief.  A  corporal,  however,  was 
unluckily  killed  by  a  bullet  from  a  window,  as  he 
alighted  to  save  an  infant  who  had  fallen  among 
the  horses'  hoofs.  Some  rascal  used  the  opportu- 
nity to  take  deliberate  aim  at  him,  and  shot  him 
dead  with  the  child  in  his  arms.  Furious  after 
this,  they  gave  little  quarter.  The  narrow  lanes 
were  littered  with  bodies.  The  crowd  had  been 
so  dense  that  it  could  not  immediately  get  itself 
dispersed,  and  half-an-hour  passed  after  the  orders 
to  the  troops,  before  the  last  straggler  had  been 
cut  clown,  or  had  disappeared  into  alley  or  door- 
way. Then  the  torches  were  quenched  :  the  streets  of 
Dublin  became  again  dark  and  silent  and  deserted,  and 
the  singular  outbreak  of  the  subterranean  fire  which 
startled  even  the  great  Pitt,  in  the  midst  of  his  Im- 
perial dreams,  and  forced  him  to  give  a  momentary 
attention  to  England's  miserable  satellite,  was  for  this 
time  suppressed  and  driven  in. 


26c  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

"  I  HAVE  come  to  Dublin,"  Colonel  Goring  said  to 
his  host,  as  they  sat  at  breakfast  the  next  morning  in 
Fitzherbert's  rooms  at  Trinity,  "  to  obtain  help  in 
keeping  order  in  Bantry  Bay.  I  might  as  well  have 
stayed  at  home,  and  spared  myself  the  journey.  You 
have  not  enough  of  the  article  for  your  own  con- 
sumption." 

"  My  dear  cousin,"  replied  Fitzherbert,  "  the  thing 
called  order,  you  ought  to  know  by  this  time,  is  an 
exotic  over  here.  It  has  been  imported  from  England, 
but  it  will  not  grow.  It  suits  neither  soil  nor  climate. 
What  we  are  to-day,  we  have  been  for  a  thousand 
years,  neither  worse  nor  better.  If  the.  English 
wanted  order  in  Ireland,  they  should  have  left  none  of 
us  alive.  We  were  but  half  a  million  when  the  Tudor 
princes  began  interfering.  At  that  time  they  might 
have  made  a  clean  sweep,  and  the  world  would  have 
been  the  better  for  the  want  of  us.  We  are  a  beggarly 
race  wherever  we  go,  and  what  you  can't  mend  you  had 
better  end.  What  ailed  the  English  to  be  meddling 
with  us  at  all  ?  We  were  here  before  Noah's  flood. 
The  breed  survived  it  somehow.  As  we  were  be- 
fore, so  we  continued,  fighting,  robbing,  burning, 
breaking  each  other's  heads.  But  we  killed  each 
other  down,  and  nature  never  meant  that  there 
should  be  more  than  a  few  of  us  in  the  world  ; 
and  you  English  must  needs  come  and  keep  the 
peace  as  you  call  it,  and  now  there  are  three  millions 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  2C1 

of  us,  and  by-and-bye  there  will  be  twenty  millions, 
and  fine  neighbours  we  are  likely  to  be  to  you. 

"  Shame  on  you,  Fitz,  to  speak  so  of  God's  crea- 
tures," said  the  Colonel.  "  But  what  set  them  wild 
last  night  ?  Powder  does  not  blow  up  unless  there  is 
a  spark  to  light  it.  What  has  the  Parliament  been 
doing  that  they  are  all  in  such  a  rage  ?  I  thought  the 
politicians  were  all  going  in  for  patrioti  ■  m  just  now." 

Patriotism  ?  Yes !  Patriotism  of  the  Hibernian 
order.  The  country  has  been  badly  treated,  and 
is  poor  and  miserable.  This  is  the  patriot's  stock 
in  trade.  Does  he  want  it  mended  ?  Not  he.  His 
own  occuptation  would  be  gone.  He  thunders  in  the 
ears  of  the  Government,  till  the  Government  bribes 
him  into  silence,  and  then  he  has  got  what  he  wanted, 
and  the  poor  devils  who  hoped  something  might 
be  done  for   them,  are   dropped  back  into  the  mud. 

Last    session    B was  the    loudest  of  the  pack. 

Pie  has  been  promised  a  Peerage,  and  a  pension  of 
^2,000  a  year,  and  now  he  is  prepared  to  tell  the  House 
of  Commons  that  all  is  as  it  should  be.     A  good  man 

B ,  by  the  bye,  one   of  the  best  of  the  lot.     We 

must  introduce  you  to  him.  Well,  he  and  all  the 
rest  have  their  price,  and  will  sell  themselves  when 
they  can  get  it.  They  are  suspected  of  being  willing 
to  sell  the  Parliament  itself,  and  the  good  people  in 
Dublin  don't   like  it 

"  And  they  have  got  their  heads  broken  for  their 
pains,"  Goring  answered,  "  and  5ome  twenty  of  them 
they  tell  me  have  been  killed.  The  Lord  help  them  ! 
My  business  I  fear,  will  speed  but  badly,  when  you 
can  manage  no  better  at  your  own  doors  ;  but  I  must 
do  what  I  can.  I  can  hardly,  I  suppose,  hope  to  be 
admitted  to  the  Viceroy," 


252  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

"  It  would  do  you  no  good,  if  you  could.  The 
Viceroy  is  seldom  here  for  more  than  a  fortnight  in 
two  years.  Our  real  masters  are  the  three  Lords 
Justices,  Lord  Kildare,  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Commons  and  the  Primate.  Kildare  is  shuffled  aside 
by  the  other  two.  The  Speaker  and  the  Primate  do 
not  love  each  other,  but  they  have  come  to  terms  for 
their  mutual  advantage.  The  Primate  is  the  strongest 
and  holds  the  reins.  In  spiritual  matters  he  is 
despotic  ;  in  secular,  nearly  so  ;  but  he  is  checked 
by  a  fear  of  a  possible  coalition  against  him  of  the 
Speaker  and  Kildare. 

"  My  special  business  lies  with  the  Primate,"  Goring 
said,  "  and  I  mean  to  call  on  him  this  morning.  If  I 
am  to  keep  my  Cornishmen  about  me  at  Dunboy,  I 
must  get  a  license  for  a  chapel  for  them.  It  is  no 
great  indulgence.  They  are  entitled  to  it  by  the  law, 
and  they  have  earned  it  by  their  services.  If  they 
cannot  serve  God  in  their  own  way,  they  will  go  to 
America  or  back  to  England,  and  if  they  leave  me 
I  cannot  stay  there  myself.  What  is  the  character  of 
this  powerful  gentleman  ?  " 

''  They  call  him  here  the  Beauty  of  Holiness, "  said 
Fitz-Herbert.  "  But  that  I  am  forbidden  by  high 
authority  to  speak  evil  of  the  rulers  of  the  people, 
I  would  add,  myself,  that  he  was  one  of  Swift's  high- 
waymen. You  will  remember  that  the  Dean  of  St. 
Patrick's  said  the  Government  appointed  excellent 
persons  to  the  Irish  sees,  but  it  always  happened  that 
on  their  way  to  Bristol  they  fell  among  thieves,  who 
stole  their  Letters  Patent,  crossed  to  Dublin,  and  got 
installed  in  their  places.  George  Stone  never  took 
the  road,  that  I  heard  of,  but  if  half  the  stories  are 
true   which  are    told    of   him,   it    was    not    because 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  263 

he  was  more  honestly  employed.  Our  present 
Viceroy  pushed  him  forward.  He  was  pretty  to  look 
at  when  he  was  young;.  They  called  him  the  Duke's 
Ganymede." 

"  I  don't  ask  you  what  the  world  believes  about 
him.     I  ask  you  how  much  of  all  this  you  believe  ?  " 

"  Well,  a  man  does  not  rise  in  these  days  to  be  an 
Archbishop  and  Lord  Justice  of  Ireland  with  nothing 
more  to  recommend  him  than  a  Duke's  patronage. 
George  Stone's  grandfather  kept  the  gaol  at 
Winchester,  and  grew  rich,  it  was  said,  by  extorting 
money  out  of  the  prisoners.  The  family  fortunes 
were  on  the  ascending  scale.  The  son  of  the  master 
of  the  gaol  became  a  banker  and  advanced  loans  to 
spendthrift  young  lords.  Connections  which  he  thus 
formed  behind  the  scenes  enabled  him  to  push  his 
own  son  forward,  who,  among  his  other  gifts,  had  a 
face  of  singular  beauty.  The  youth  made  the  most 
of  his  opportunities.  He  was  clever,  proud,  ambitious 
perhaps  unprincipled,  skilful  in  flattering  the  great 
and  in  making  stepping-stones  of  those  below  him. 
He  was  put  into  the  Church,  as  the  readiest  road  to 
preferment,  and  he  adopted  the  high,  legal,  Anglican 
uniform.  They  gave  him  an  Irish  living,  and  directly 
after  a  Secretary's  place  at  the  Castle.  Being  obsequious 
and  useful,  he  rose  next  to  a  Deanery,  and  then  a 
Bishopric,  and  when  the  last  Archbishop  of  Armagh 
died,  he  was  advanced,  while  still  far  below  middle  age, 
to  the  Primacy.  To  us  in  Dublin  he  is  known  as 
intriguing,  arrogant  and  overbearing.  Kildare,  who 
hates  him,  calls  him  another  Wolsey.  He  is  lavish  of 
money,  grasping  always  at  power  and  steadily  devoted 
to  the  views  of  his  masters  in  England,  whatever 
those    views    may    be.       His    chief  pleasure    is   in 


264  THE    TWO    CHIEI^S   OF  DUN  BOY. 

corrupting-  patriots,  in  which  he  is  remarkably 
successful.  Religion  he  is  supposed  to  have  none, 
but  to  be  unaware  of  his  deficiency,  since  he  does  no 
know  what  it  means.  Church  law,  the  apostolical 
succession  and  the  official  costume  generally  of  the 
Established  order,  he  understands  very  well  and  can 
prove  to  you  that  he  descends  straight  from  St 
Patrick. 

To  the  Colonel's  inquiry  whether  this  astonishing 
Prelate  would  be  likely  to  see  him.  Fitz-Herbert 
answered  neither  yes  nor  no  ;  he  could  not  tell  :  but 
at  least  the  Colonel  might  try,  and  he  let  him  go,  with 
a  few  formal  instructions,  to  make  the  experiment. 
The  great  man's  residence  was  a  palatial  building  in 
St.  Stephen's  Green.  It  stood  in  the  midst  of  a  large 
court  or  garden,  which  was  approached  from  the  road 
through  massive  gates  of  bronze,  while  from  the 
court  to  the  house  itself,  was  a  broad  flight  of  stairs. 
Heathen  gods  and  goddesses  standing  on  pedestals  in 
the  lightest  costume  indicated  that  the  Archbishop's 
tastes  were  rather  sensual  than  spiritual  ;  and  the  sen- 
tinels at  the  doors  and  at  the  gates  kept  guard  for  him 
more  as  Lord  Justice  than  as  Primate.  Viewed  from 
outside  there  was  nothing  to  suggest  an  ecclesiastical 
residence,  unless  the  Church  militant  was  indicated  in 
the  file  of  soldiers,  who,  in  consequence  of  last  night's 
disturbance,  had  been  introduced  into  the  hall.  About 
the  household  there  was  an  air  of  disquiet.  Officers 
in  uniform  were  passing  in  and  out ;  and  mounted 
orderlies  were  bringing  or  taking  messages.  Colonel 
Goring  had  some  difficulty  in  prevailing  on  a  lackey 
to  take  in  his  name  and  the  lackey  was  himself 
evidently  surprised,  when  he  brought  back  word  that 
the  Colonel  was  to  be  admitted. 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  EUXBOV.  265 

The  Lord  Primate  or  the  Lord  Justice,  whichever 
he  preferred  to  be  called,  had  but  lately  risen.  He 
was  sitting  in  a  large,  handsomely-furnished  library, 
sipping  his  chocolate.  Letters  and  reports  lay  open, 
scattered  about  his  table.  He  was  himself  glancing 
through  the  morning  newspaper.  In  his  hand  was 
the  Advertiser^  a  new  paper  just  brought  out  by 
Mr.  Lucas,  a  popular  tribune,  while  the  Citizens 
Journal  lay  on  the  hearthrug  as  if  impatiently  flung 
aside.  Though  he  had  passed  middle  life,  George 
Stone  had  not  yet  lost  the  traces  of  the  beauty 
to  which  he  owed  his  fortune,  and  his  dress  was 
evidently  designed  to  make  the  most  of  what  re- 
mained. His  costume  was  a  long,  loose,  robe  of 
purple  silk,  lined  with  ermine,  which  set  off  his  height. 
Round  his  neck  was  a  gold  chain,  from  which  a  cross 
was  suspended  of  pearls  and  emicralds,  and  a  ring, 
with  one  splendid  diamond  in  it,  glittered  on  his 
delicate  hand.  At  his  wrists  were  elaborate  frills  oi 
Flemish  lace,  and  on  his  feet  purple  silk  stockings 
and  satin  shoes,  with  gold  buckles  and  rosettes.  His 
appearance  was  that  of  a  luxurious  gentleman,  with 
the  faintest  possible  indication  of  a  dignitary  of  the 
ruling  church.  He  was  fifty  years  old,  but  so  well 
cared  for  that  he  might  have  been  taken  for  twenty 
years  younger.  His  closely-shaved  features  were  as 
regular  as  those  of  a  statue  of  a  Greek  god.  His  com- 
plexion was  pale.  The  grey  m  his  hair,  if  grey  streaks 
had  yet  appeared  there,  was  concealed  by  the  powder. 
His  eyes  were  dark-brown  and  softly  brilliant,  and  his 
voice  when  he  spoke,  was  a  flute-toned  tenor. 

He  did  not  rise  when  Colonel  Goring  entered,  but 
smiled  as  if  he  had  expected  to  see  him  and  knew  the 
purpose  of  his  visit.     He  motioned  him  to  a  seat,  as  a 


266  THE   TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 

god  might  motion  a  mortal  who  had  strayed  within 
the  Palace  at  Olympus,  "  Colonel  Goring,"  he  said, 
"  I  am  glad  to  see  you.  I  heard  that  you  were  in  the 
town  and  1  looked  for  a  call  from  you.  You  come 
early — earlier  perhaps  than  I  was  prepared  for — but 
no  matter.     I  much  wished  to  speak  to  you." 

The  Colonel  bowed.  The  Archbishop  continued  : 
"  I  understand  that  you  were  a  witness  of  the  un- 
happy scene  which  occurred  last  night  in  front  of  the 
Houses  of  Parliament,  I  am  at  this  moment,  as  you 
may  easily  suppose,  intensely  occupied  with  what  has 
taken  place.  As  an  officer  and  a  gentleman  you  will 
give  me  an  impartial  account  of  what  you  yourself  saw, 
I  may  add  that  your  reputation  as  an  active  and  efficient 
magistrate  in  your  own  district  has  not  escaped  my 
notice  either.  I  have  been  for  some  time  anxious  for 
a  word  with  you  about  that  incident  with  which  you 
were  concerned  at  Glengariff,  You  are  staying,  I 
think,  at  the  College  ?  " 

"My  Lord,"  replied  the  Colonel,  "  I  arrived  in  Dublin 
last  night  only,  on  a  visit  to  a  relative  who  is  one  of 
the  Fellows.  It  is  quite  true  that  I  was  a  spectator  of 
the  riot  to  which  you  refer.  I  saw  the  beginning  of 
it,  and  I  saw  the  bloodshed  in  which  it  unfortunately 
ended.  Very  sorry  am  1  that  the  lawless  spirit  which 
prevails  in  so  many  other  parts  of  Ireland  should  have 
shown  itself  so  close  to  the  seat  of  Government.  But 
how  or  why  my  presence  was  taken  notice  of,  and  so 
brought  under  your  lordship's  observation,  I  am  at  a 
loss  to  conjecture." 

"  You  do  not  know  that  you  are  a  notorious  person, 
Colonel  Goring,"  rejoined  the  Prelate.  "  More  eyes  are 
on  you  than  you  are  aware  of.  Do  not  think  that  I 
am  finding  fault  with  you.     It  was  by  mere  accident 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  267 


that  your  name  came  before  me.  The  Provost 
mentioned  it  in  a  report  which  he  has  just  sent  in  on 
the  conduct  of  the  students.  But  this  and  your  own 
opportune  cah  enables  me  to  speak  to  you  on  a  sub- 
ject very  serious  always,  and  now  of  graver  moment 
than  ever." 

He  paused  for  an  instant,  looking  steadily  in 
Goring's  face,  and  then  went  on  :  "  Such  scenes  as  that 
which  you  witnessed  last  night,  are  fortunately  of 
rare  occurrence  in  this  city.  Many  years  have  passed 
since  there  has  been  any  disturbance  here  which  has 
required  the  interference  of  the  military.  We  had  no 
warning  of  what  was  coming.  There  was  no  dis- 
content among  the  people  that  we  knew  of,  yet  some 
cause  of  course  there  must  have  been.  We  have 
been  enquiring  anxiously  into  what  that  cause  was, 
and  we  believe  that  we  have  discovered  it.  It  has 
been  proved  to  us  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  most 
violent  section  of  the  mob  consisted  of  artizans  from 
the  Earl  of  Meath's  Liberty.  As  you  are  not,  perhaps, 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  city  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  this,  I  must  inform  you  that  the  workmen 
in  that  quarter  are  almost  to  a  man  what  we  call 
Swaddlers,  Protestant  Dissenters,  whom  we  owe  to 
those  most  mischievous  of  modern  agitators,  Wesley 
and  Whitfield.  Under  pretence  of  preaching  a  purer 
gospel,  those  gentlemen  have  revived  the  rebellious 
and  independent  spirit  which  dishonoured  the  Refor- 
mation by  its  excesses  and  led  in  the  last  century  to 
Revolution  and  Regicide.  That  the  evil  seed  has  been 
brought  hither  is  a  frightful  addition  to  our  other 
difficulties.  It  is  fortunate,  however,  that  the  true 
character  of  this  sect  should  have  so  early  and  evi- 
dently   betrayed     itself.    I    speak    frankly,    Colonel 


268  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

Goring.  I  do  not  conceal  from  you  that  you  have 
yourself  been  reported  to  me  as  showing  favour  to 
these  people  in  your  own  district.  "That  }-ou 
should  be  personally  connected  with  such  miscreants 
is  of  course  impossible  ;  as  an  officer  and  a  county 
magistrate  you  are  necessarily  a  communicant  in 
the  Established  Church ;  you  are  a  gentleman  and 
a  man  of  honour,  and  can  have  nothing  in  common 
with  ignorant  and  vulgar  fanatics.  But  I  am  told 
that  you  have  introduced  some  of  this  very  rabble 
out  of  England  to  work  your  mines  and  fisheries. 
You  have  even  applied  for  a  license  for  them,  under 
the  Toleration  Act,  to  have  their  own  preachers  and 
form  of  worship.  I  trust  that  you  will  take  warning 
from  what  you  have  seen  and  will  send  them  back  to 
their  own  country  at  your  earliest  opportunity." 

Colonel  Goring  had  seen  too  much  of  life  to  be 
easily  surprised  ;  but  the  charge  against  the  unfor- 
tunate Wesley ans  took  away  his  breath.  Of  all 
imaginable  suggestions  on  the  origin  of  the  riot,  that 
it  could  be  connected  with  Protestant  Dissent  was 
the  most  wildly  impossible.  Finding,  however,  that 
the  Archbishop  was  realh^  in  earnest,  he  said  : 

"  My  lord,  not  more  than  a  few  hours  have  passed 
since  the  disturbance  was  at  its  height.  There  has 
been  little  time  for  examination.  May  I  ask  what 
proof  you  have  obtained  of  the  guilt  of  the  parties 
whom  you  mention  ?  Your  Grace  began  with  asking 
me  to  tell  you  what  I  saw  myself.  Certainly  nothing 
that  I  saw  would  bear  out  the  view  which  you  are 
now  expressing." 

*' Colonel  Goring,"  replied  the  Primate  shortly,  "lam 
not  accustomed  to  use  words  at  random.  It  is  enough 
'',  at  an  active  inquiry  has  been  carried  on  during  the 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  269 

night,  and  the  information  brought  to  me  is  uni- 
formly of  the  same  complexion.  The  riot  originated 
in  the  Earl  of  Meath's  Liberties,  where  these  anarchists 
are  known  to  congregate.  My  agents  are  perfectly 
trustworthy.  The  inhabitants  of  those  streets  are 
well  known  to  them,  and  they  cannot  be  mistaken. 
We  are  so  satisfied  that  we  are  on  the  right  track 
that  my  secretaries  are  already  writing  their  report, 
and  it  will  leave  for  England  by  the  yacht  this 
evening." 

"  You  may  think  it  unbecoming  my  Lord,  in  such  a 
person  as  myself,  to  question  the  propriety  of  so 
hasty  a  decision.  Your  Grace  is  better  judge  than 
I  can  be  of  what  it  is  fit  for  )-ou  to  do.  But  as  a 
Magistrate,  I  am  not  without  experience  in  such 
matters.  If  the  facts  be  as  you  say,  your  agents 
must  be  able  to  lay  hands  on  some,  at  least,  of  the 
ringleaders.  Would  it  not  be  right  that  they  should 
be  arrested  and  questioned  ?  A  good  many  persons 
were  unfortunately  killed.  The  bodies  can  surely  be 
identified." 

"  Further  enquiry  is  not  necessary,"  answered  the 
Primate  impatiently.  "  You  say  you  have  had  ex- 
perience. Then  you  know  enough  of  the  people  of 
Ireland  to  be  aware  that  the  last  thing  which  you 
can  get  from  any  of  them  is  the  truth.  One  will 
lie,  and  another  will  lie,  till  facts  are  all  lost  in  lies. 
We  are  satisfied,  and  that  is  enough." 

Goring  opened  his  eyes  even  wider  than  before. 
He  admitted  the  general  truth  of  the  Archbishop's 
indictment,  but  he  observed  that  it  applied  equally 
to  the  evidence  which  had  been  made  the  basis  of 
the  report.  "  My  Lord,"  he  said,  "  I  say  frankly 
that    I     mistrust    information    so    quickly    collected 


270  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 


and  at  once  so  positive  and  so  consistent.  It 
savours  to  me  of  a  preconceived  conclusion,  and 
reminds  me  of  the  old  story  of  the  wolf  and  the  lamb. 
But  I  must  not  argue  with  your  Grace.  I  will 
proceed,  if  you  will  allow  me,  to  the  particular 
business  which  has  brought  me  to  Dublin.  Your  Grace 
has  yourself  alluded  to  it  in  terms  which  I  fear 
promise  ill  for  my  success,  and  if  you  are  right  in 
your  interpretation  of  what  happened  last  night,  I 
can  hardly  hope  for  a  favourable  hearing.  I  will, 
however,  be  as  brief  as  I  can." 

"  The  briefer  the  better,  Colonel  Goring,"  said  the 
Primate,  who,  knowing  what  was  coming,  had  intended 
his  declamation  against  the  Dissenters  to  be  a  reply 
to  any  fiivour  which  might  be  asked  of  him,  and, 
provoked  by  the  Colonel's  incredulity,  would  have  now 
closed  the  interview.  "  The  briefer  the  better,  for  I 
have  a  busy  morning  before  me." 

"  A  few  sentences  will  be  sufficient,"  he  replied. 
"  My  residence,  as  your  Grace  knows,  is  at  Dunboy 
on  Bantry  Bay,  and  I  have  got  under  my  charge  a 
hundred  miles  of  coast  line.  The  Bay  is  a  general 
haunt  of  smugglers,  privateers,  French  recruiting 
officers  and  rebel  agents  and  incendiaries.  Half 
the  people  in  the  country  are  in  league  with 
them,  and  the  other  half,  who  wish  for  a 
quiet  life  and  an  unburnt  roof  over  their  heads, 
prefer  not  to  meddle  with  them.  My  duty  is 
to  maintain  the  law,  and  to  bring  to  justice  those 
who  violate  it.  The  force  allowed  me  is  wholly 
inadequate.  I  have  applied  for  an  increase,  and  I 
have  been  answered  that  I  cannot  have  it,  and  I  must 
manage  as  well  as  I  can  with  my  own  resources. 
This  is  v.diat  I  have  tried  to  do." 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  271 

The  Primate  turned  over  his  letters,  drummed 
with  his  fingers  on  the  table,  and  gave  other  signs  of 
unconcealed  impatience.  "  Colonel  Goring,"  he  said, 
*'  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Revenue  Board. 
You  must  address  yourself  to  the  Speaker,  or  to  the 
Commisioners  of  Customs.  I  have  more  important 
matters  to  attend  to." 

"  Pardon  me,  my  Lord,"  answered  Goring.  "  Most 
unwillingly  do  I  intrude  upon  your  Grace's  time. 
But  your  Grace  and  no  one  else  can  assist  me.  You 
alluded  to  the  Protestant  families  whom  I  have  intro- 
duced upon  my  estate.  They  are  the  persons  in 
whose  behalf  I  have  to  trouble  you,  and  in  spite  of  the 
unfavourable  opinion  which  you  appear  to  have 
formed  of  the  characters  of  these  poor  people,  I  still 
hope  that  I  may  induce  you  to  modify  your  judgment. 

"  When  at  the  time  that  I  succeeded  to  my  propert}^ 
I  was  also  given  the  charge  of  the  Bay,  I  found 
it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  do  my  duty  there 
with  only  the  ordinary  Water  Guard.  The  coast  was 
beset  with  smugglers  and  pirates.  I  asked  for  a 
small  Revenue  Sloop,  and  for  a  few  months  a  Sloop 
was  allowed  me.  It  was  then  removed,  and  I  was 
told  that  it  would  not  return.  On  this  I  then  went  to 
work  with  my  own  means.  I  established  a  fishery.  I 
opened  a  copper-mine.  I  introduced  those  families  of 
whom  your  Grace  was  pleased  to  speak,  P'-otestants 
from  Cornwall  and  from  Ulster.  Your  Grace  dis- 
trusts them.  They  were  selected  for  me  by  friends 
on  whose  judgment  I  could  rely,  and  I  have  found 
them  the  very  best  of  men  that  I  have  ever  known, 
brave,  faithful,  loyal,  industrious.  They  have  taken  root. 
They  have  opened  out  the  wealth  of  land  and  sea. 
They  have  thriven  and  prospered.     With  their  help 


272  THE   TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

I  have  checked  the  smugglers  and  almost  suppressed 
them.  I  have  restored  order  in  the  Bay.  I  have  a  body 
of  men  with  me  who  can  be  entirely  relied  on  in  case 
of  local  disturbance  or  a  French  landing.  Some  of 
them  are  Calvinists  from  the  North  of  Ireland  The 
rest  I  must  admit  are  what  your  Grace  terms 
Swaddlers.  They  are  men  who  were  recovered  (I  fear 
I  shall  fall  under  your  Grace's  censure  in  what  I  am 
about  to  say) — who  were  recovered  from  practical 
Atheism  by  Wesley  and  Whitfield,  and  were  brought 
under  the  influence  of  Christianity.  If  those  in  Dublin 
who  belong  to  the  same  sect  are  indeed  as  degenerate 
and  unworthy  as  your  Grace  supposes,  my  colonists 
at  Dunboy  have  nothing  but  the  name  in  common 
with  them.  They  are  earnest,  God-fearing  men,  and 
if  they  have  formed  themselves  into  a  separate  com- 
munion, it  is  only  because  they  were  left  in  darkness 
by  the  Church  of  England  clerg\',  and  were  brought 
to  the  light  by  other  means.  They  cannot  live 
without  their  religious  services,  and  they  claim  as 
they  are  entitled  to  do  by  the  law,  the  benefit 
of  the  Toleration  Act.  The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
refuses  to  allow  their  chapel  to  be  registered.  The 
grand  jury  of  the  county  refer  me  to  your  Grace, 
and  I  c.innot  believe  that  a  request  so  reasonable  will 
be  refused.  I  must  add  that  the  concession  is  a 
condition  of  their  remaining  with  me.  If  their 
petition  is  again  rejected,  they  will  emigrate  to  the 
American  plantations." 

The  listless  indifference  had  passed  out  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's face  while  the  Colonel  was  speaking.  His 
eyes  flashed,  his  lips  quivered.  He  made  not  the 
least  attempt  to  restrain  or  conceal  his  anger.  "  Their 
petition  is  again  rejected,"  he  said  ;    "and  let  me  add 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  273 


that  I  am  astonished  at  your  presenting  it.  The 
benefit  of  the  Toleration  Act  to  which  you  refer  is 
hmited  to  those  of  whose  loyalty  to  the  Crown  there 
is  no  suspicion,  and  of  the  loyalty  of  these  God-fearing 
Christians  of  yours  we  have  no  assurance  at  all.  From 
what  I  hear  of  them  they  are  like  the  Fifth  Monarchy 
men  of  the  Usurper.  I  am  astonished  that  )'OU,  w^io 
call  )'Ourself  a  member  of  the  Establishment— who 
have  even  built  a  church  and  endowed  it,  such  is 
your  consistency — should  desire  to  retain  such  a  set  of 
hypocrites  about  you.  If  I  could  be  more  surprised 
at  anything,  it  would  be  that  you  should  have  expected 
countenance  in  such  an  enterprise  from  me.  Pro- 
testant Dissent,  sir,  from  the  first  hours  of  its  appear- 
ance, has  been  the  nursery  of  sedition.  To  \\'hat  it 
led  in  England  I  need  not  remind  you.  Of  the  effects 
of  it  in  this  country  we  have  had  too  recent  and  too 
bitter  experience." 

"  I  have  heard  it  said,  my  lord,"  answered  Goring, 
"  that  the  Protestant  Apprentices  who  defended  Derry 
were  not  generally  members  of  the  Episcopal  com^- 
munion  ;  but  I  must  not  presume  to  contradict  your 
Grace  on  a  question  of  history.  There  may  be  bad 
men  in  all  communities,  religious  or  civil.  My  own 
request  is  in  behalf  of  a  set  of  persons  who  are 
individually  known  to  myself,  for  whose  conduct  and 
character  I  can  myself  answer,  and  who  have  stood 
by  me  in  my  difficult  duties  with  courage  and  fidelity. 
I  ask  no  more  for  them  than  has  been  allowed  since 
the  Revolution  to  Nonconformists  in  England,  and 
which  it  was  supposed  that  the  recent  Act  of  the  Irish 
Parliament  had  conceded  in  this  country." 

"  You  will  answer  ? "  said  the  Primate,  flushing 
with  displeasure,  "  and  who,  sir,  I  am  obliged  to  ask,  will 

18 


274  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOW 

answer  for  yourself?  We  hear  of  you — you,  an  officer 
of  the  Crown — pubHcly  fighting  a  duel.  We  hear  of 
you  parading  your  religious  indifference  by  building  a 
church  in  one  place  and  a  chapel  in  another.  When 
you  speak  of  those  persons  standing  by  you,  you 
allude,  I  presume,  to  your  late  exploit  at  Glengariff 
There  are  two  versions  of  that  story.  We  have  been 
given  to  understand  that  the  vessel  which  came  into 
Glengariff  harbour  was  a  French  trader  under  French 
colours,  that  her  boats  v\^ere  sent  on  shore  for  water 
and  provisions,  that  they  were  fired  into  by  a  party 
under  your  command,  and  that  many  lives  were  lost 
in  consequence.  Complaints  have  been  made  to  us 
by  the  French  Consul  of  this  performance  of  yours. 
In  the  present  critical  relations  between  France  and 
Great  Britain,  it  is  unfortunate,  to  use  a  light  word, 
that  a  fresh  occasion  of  dispute  should  have  arisen. 
Your  zeal,  sir,  in  the  suppression  of  smuggling  is  well 
known  to  us  ;  but  it  is  possible  to  be  too  busy  even  in 
the  discharge  of  a  duty." 

Colonel  Goring  smiled.  "  If  you  have  any  charge 
to  bring  against  me,  my  lord,"  he  said,  "  let  me  be 
called  to  my  answer.  It  might  be  enough  to  say  that 
this  same  harmless  trader,  when  overtaken  by  a  King's 
ship,  three  days  later,  refused  to  give  an  account  of 
herself  and  fired  upon  his  Majesty's  flag.  She  was 
not  merely  a  smuggler — she  was  landing  arms  for  an 
intended  insurrection.  I  have  my  evidence  to  pro- 
duce.    If  it  is  insufficient  let  the  law  punish  me." 

"  We  do  not  want  your  evidence,  sir,"  retorted  the 
Primate,  ''  or  the  bad  blood  which  the  production  of  it 
would  raise.  You  may  be  right  or  you  may  be  wrong 
about  the  character  of  the  vessel  which  you  meddled 
with.     I  decid-e  neither  for  you  nor  against  you.     But 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  275 


at  a  time  when  the  ill-feeHng  between  the  different 
classes  of  the  population  in  this  country  is  dying 
away,  when  we  are  receiving  the  most  gratifying 
assurances  of  loyalty  from  the  leading  Roman 
Catholics,  and  his  Majesty's  Government  is  con- 
templating a  relaxation  of  the  penal  laws,  nothing 
can  be  worse  timed  or  more  to  be  deprecated  than  the 
breaking  out  of  these  petty  local  conflicts,  and  the 
parade  of  them  before  the  world.  For  this  reason,  and 
for  many  other  reasons  which  I  need  not  enter  upon, 
we  deprecate  also  the  re-establishment  in  the  South 
of  those  Protestant  colonies,  which  provoke  irritation 
and  violence,  and  keep  alive  angry  memories.  If 
these  people  of  yours  wish  to  remain  in  Ireland  they 
must  conform  to  the  Church  established  by  the  law. 
You  cannot  have  two  laws  in  the  same  country,  and 
you  cannot  have  two  religions.  I  know  what  you 
will  say.  We  tolerate  the  Presbyterians  in  the  North 
against  the  judgment  of  the  wisest  of  the  Bench  of 
Bishops  ;  but  still  we  do  tolerate  them.  We  grant 
licenses  to  the  Roman  Catholic  priests,  we  tolerate 
Quakers,  and  the  innocent  fools  who  call  themselves 
Methodists.  For  myself,  I  regret  all  these  concessions 
to  Protestant  sects.  They  are  a  legacy  to  us  from 
unsettled  times,  which  I  hope  in  time  may  be  with- 
drawn ;  but  we  endure  them  among  us  as  long  as 
they  are  politically  harmless.  But  we  do  not  tolerate, 
and  we  never  will,  the  Anabaptists  or  Socinians,  whose 
principles  undermine  the  foundation  of  civil  society. 
We  do  not  tolerate  the  random  congregations  of  paltry 
and  illiterate  upstarts,  who  imagine  that  they  are  com- 
petent to  form  a  religion  for  themselves.  Such  sects 
as  these  are  the  spawn  of  the  seed  left  behind  by 
anarchy    and    regicide,  and    we    regard   them    as   the 

18* 


276  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

worst,  perhaps  as  the  only  serious,  danger  which  now 
threatens  the  peace  of  Ireland." 

Colonel  Goring  listened  calmly  to  this  impetuous 
invective.  Strongly  tempted  though  he  was  to  speak 
his  mind,  he  restrained  himself;  and  drawing  two 
scrolls  of  paper  from  his  pocket  he  said  quietly : 

*'  Again  I  must  decline  to  follow  your  Grace  across 
so  wide  a  field.  But  you  say  that  the  Protestants 
scattered  about  Munster  must  attend  the  parish 
churches,  and  be  content  with  the  ministrations  of  the 
parish  clergyman.  Will  your  Grace  be  kind  enough 
to  glance  over  these  schedules  ?  " 

Impatiently  the  Archbishop  took  the  papers  and 
ran  his  eyes  over  them.  They  contained  lists  of  the 
Episcopal  churches  in  the  Counties  of  Cork  and 
Kerry,  with  a  description  attached  to  each  of  its 
present  condition.  In  the  entire  Diocese  of  Ross 
there  were  but  five  Parish  churches  in  sufficient 
repair  to  allow  service  to  be  carried  on  in  them.  The 
rest  were  roofless  and  in  ruins.  In  the  seventy-nine 
parishes  in  Kerry,  in  all  of  which  were  remains  of 
churches  where  men  and  women  had  met  and  prayed 
together,  all  but  eleven  were  going  to  pieces,  roof  and 
doors  gon^,  and  windows  fallen  out.  In  the  eleven 
which  were  still  weather-proof,  there  was  service  in 
only  six.  The  rest  were  deserted.  The  benefices 
were  attached  to  canonries,  or  belonged  to  some  non- 
resident incumbent  ;  not  so  much  as  a  curate  was 
kept  for  decency  and  form's  sake  ;  and  the  only  repre- 
sentative of  the  Established  Church,  which  no  .parish 
was  without,  was  the  Proctor,  the  official  who  collected 
the  tithes,  who  received  a  nominal  stipend  of  five  or 
ten  shillings  a  year,  and  paid  himself  for  the  risk  of 
his  own  life  by  his  extortions  on  the  peasantry. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  277 

'' Your  Grace  will  observe,"  the  Colonel  said,  "that 
with  the  exception  of  the  church  which  I  built  myself 
at  Glengariff,  there  is  not  one  where  there  is  any 
service  within  twenty  miles  of  me.  Glengariff  is  a 
long  day's  journey  for  women  and  children,  and  in 
refusing  to  allow  my  people  their  chapel  you  are  con- 
demning the  majority  of  them  to  live  like  heathens. 
Nor  can  it  be  said  that  there  are  no  means  of  making 
better  provision  for  them  ;  for  the  tithes  are  extorted 
to  the  last  corn-sheaf  or  potato  sack,  while  the  poor 
people  who  pay  them  have  built  a  mass  house  in  ever\' 
parish  and  support  a  priest  of  their  own." 

Something  which  resembled  a  blush  did  for  the 
moment  tint  the  Primate's  cheek  ;  but  if  blush  it  wa\ 
it  was  the  blush  of  anger  rather  than  shame. 

"  Colonel  Goring,"  he  said  haughtily,  "  to  what 
purpose  is  this  ?  Confident  though  \-ou  are  in  \'our 
own  judgment,  you  do  not  I  presume  think  yourself 
wiser  than  the  Legislature  which  has  decided  on  the 
Ecclesiastical  organization  adapted  for  this  Island  ? 
The  Established  Church  of  Ireland  is  the  direct 
representative  of  the  ancient  Church  of  St.  Patrick, 
It  has  been  recognized  and  maintained  in  authority 
by  the  three  estates  of  the  Realm,  and  if  the  build- 
ings have  fallen  out  of  repair,  it  is  because  the  gentry 
have  neglected  their  duties,  and  the  old  inhabitants 
have  persisted  in  their  ignorant  attachment  to  the 
unreformed  Ritual.  We  know  that  we,  and  only 
we,  are  in  possession  of  the  truth,  and  we  are 
confident  that  the  poor  misguided  people  must  at 
length  recognize  the  precious  privileges  which  none 
but  we  can  offer  them.  Meanwhile  the  tithes  you 
speak  of  are  the  Church's  property.  If  the  peasantry 
refu'  c    for    the    moment    to    avail    themselves    of  the 


278  THE    TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 

ministrations  which  the  law  provides,  the  excellent 
men  whose  services  they  reject  find  use  for  their 
talents  elsewhere.  The  tithes  of  Munster  are  still 
applied  to  spiritual  purposes,  when  they  go  to  sup- 
port learning  and  piety  in  other  parts  of  Ireland  or  in 
the  English  cities.  They  are  a  tax  upon  the  land, 
designed  to  maintain  the  Church  as  a  corporate  body 
in  dignity  and  efficiency." 

This  ingenious  defence  of  pluralist  Canons  and 
Irish  Rectors  resident  at  Bath  and  Cheltenham,  was 
new  to  Goring.  Crushing  down  his  disposition  to 
laugh,  "  I  wish,"  he  said,  "  that  I  could  either  share 
your  Grace's  expectations  for  the  future,  or  accept 
your  defence  of  the  present  state  of  things.  I  can  do 
neither.  The  peasantry,  so  far  as  my  experience 
goes,  do  not  understand  the  purposes  to  which  the 
tithes  are  applied,  nor  would  they  appreciate  them  if 
they  did.  The  Church  as  it  stands,  they  regard  as  a 
mockery  and  an  insult,  and  if  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation  are  to  make  way  in  this  country,  it  will 
be  through  agencies  unconnected  with  the  demands  of 
tithe  proctors  ;  it  will  be  through  the  presence  among 
them  of  self-supporting  Protestant  communities,  whom 
I  am  sorry  to  see  your  Grace  so  little  inclined  to  en- 
courage. But  I  occupy  your  Grace's  time  I  fear  to 
no  purpose.  I  came  to  request  that  a  community  of 
blameless  and  industrious  men,  who  live  on  my 
estate  on  Bantry  Bay,  might  be  allowed  freedom  of 
worship,  on  the  same  terms  as  the  Roman  Catholics, 
the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster,  the  Wesleyan  Metho- 
dists and  the  Quakers  are  severally  allowed  their 
own.  You  assume  that  they  are  disentitled  by 
opinions  or  practices,  which  you  are  pleased  to  ascribe 
to  them  ;  you  fall  back  on  your  discretionary  power. 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  279 


and    I  understand  you    to    say    that    my    demand  is 
finally  refused." 

"  Your  apprehension  is  correct,  sir,"  said  the 
Primate.  "  I  expressed  myself  with  so  much  ex- 
plicitness  at  the  beginning  of  our  interview,  that  I 
might  have  expected  that  you  would  have  understood 
me  even  more  readily.  It  would  have  spared  us  some 
unnecessary  discussion.  Enough,  however,  that  you 
do  understand  me,  and  that  you  realize  that  my 
answer  is  final.  One  word  only,  in  conclusion.  You 
seem  to  argue  that,  because  the  Roman  Catholics  are 
tolerated,  we  ought  to  tolerate  these  people  of  yours. 
Let  me  tell  you,  sir,  that  we  refuse  to  regard  the 
adherents  of  a  great  and  ancient  institution,  which  is 
the  main  support  of  order  on  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  as  on  a  level  with  a  congregation  of  vulgar, 
Psalm-singing  mechanics.     And  now  I  wish  you  good 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

"  The  Primate,  I  fear,  will  have  sickened  you  of 
Castle  officials,"  said  Fitzherbert,  w^hen  his  kinsman 
gave  him  the  history  of  his  reception.  ''  He  is  the 
most  absurd,  the  most  ridiculous — but,  unhappily,  the 
most  influential — of  all  our  politicians.  He  is  put  here 
to  protect  the  English  interest.  Money  and  patronage 
will  buy  every  public  man  in  Ireland,  soul  and  body  ; 
and  this  extraordinary  successor  of  the  Apostles  has, 
unfortunately,  the  most  of  both  to  give  away.  What 
the  Primate  says  the  Viceroy  w^ill  say,  and  Lord  A. 
will  say,  and — alas  !  that  it  should  be  so — the  Judges 
will  say  ;  and  if  you  appeal  to  either  of  them,  you 
will  lose  your  time,  and  perhaps  your  temper.      But 


28o  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUiXnOV. 


you  must  see  the  Speaker.  He  has  his  price,  Hke  the 
rest.  At  heart,  he  is  honest  enough  :  but  he  must  do 
as  the  others  do ;  for  if  he  set  up  to  be  immaculate, 
he  would  be  thought  a  humbug,  and  no  one  would 
believe  him,  and  he  would  have  no  influence  at  all. 
But  you  will  find  he  has  sense.  He  knows  a  fool 
when  he  sees  one,  and  he  has  a  wholesome  hatred  of 
that  long-eared  race.  He  knows  that  }'OU  are  here, 
and  he  wants  to  talk  with  you.  You  are  a  famous 
person,  you  know,  since  your  duel  at  Derreen.  You 
are  to  meet  him  at  dinner  to-morrow.  Here  is  an 
invitation  for  you.  I  know  what  is  in  it,  for  Achmet 
told  me." 

"  Achmet !  "  said  Goring.  "  And  who  is  Achmet, 
in  Heaven's  name  ?  " 

The  letter,  elaborately  folded,  was  addressed  with 
many  flourishes,  to  his  Excellency  the  Pasha  Gordon. 
The  seal  was  a  crescent,  and  round  it  was  an  Arabic 
inscription.  Goring  tore  open  the  envelope,  and 
read  with  wide  eyes  that  Dr.  Achmet  Borumborad 
requested  the  honour  of  his  company  at  a  Parlia- 
mentary dinner,  to  be  held  on  the  following  day,  at 
the  Turkish  Baths,  on  the  Liffey. 

"  What  circumcised  Philistine  is  this  ? "  he  said. 
"  Dr.  Achmet  Borumborad  !  Whoever  heard  of  such 
a  name?  Is  it  a  joke — or  what  is  it  ?  A  Parlia- 
mentary dinner,  and  the  twenty  men  not  buried  yet 
that  were  cut  down  in  the  streets  last  night  !  " 

''  No  time  so  fit,"  Fitzherbert  answered.  "  If  we 
hadn't  our  little  entertainments,  there  would  be  no 
living  at  all  in  this  miserable  country.  We  must 
either  laugh  or  cry — and  if  we  went  in  for  crying,  we 
should  all  hang  ourselves.  This  Achmet,  as  he  calls 
himself,  pretends  to  be  a  true  Turk,  and  I  suppose  he 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUXBOY.  2S1 

is  one.  His  beard  is  long  enough,  any  way.  He 
walks  about  in  a  blue  silk  pelisse,  with  a  high-peaked 
cap,  and  a  dagger  in  his  belt,  with  a  diamond  in  the 
hilt  of  it.  We  like  novelties  in  Dublin,  and  we  like 
Achmet." 

"  But  what  does  he  do  ?  Is  he  in  Parliament  ? 
Have  }^ou  sworn  him  on  the  Council  in  this  most 
Christian  land  ?  " 

"  He  appeared  in  this  cit}-  a  few  years  since.  No 
one  knows  where  he  came  from,  and  no  one  cares. 
He  called  himself  a  Hakim,  or  medicine  man.  He 
said  that  we  were  dirty,  and  that  we  suffering  from 
want  of  ablutions.  He  got  into  society,  and,  being  a 
sharp  fellow,  he  found  that  in  a  place  where  there  was 
no  trade,  and  where  we  had  nothing  to  occupy  us  but 
politics,  the  women  wanted  excitement,  and  the  men 
wanted  to  be  amused.  He  said  that  he  had  been 
the  Sultan's  doctor  at  Constantinople,  and  that 
made  him  fashionable.  He  opened  baths  on  the 
river  for  public  use,  and  he  provided  medicated  waters 
in  an  inner  sanctuary.  He  assured  our  ladies  that 
he  would  make  them  beautiful  for  ever,  and,  of 
course,  they  adored  him.  He  extended  his  premises, 
as  the  demand  grew,  adding  a  club-room  and  a 
dining-room,  after  the  pattern  of  Bath  and  Chelten- 
ham, which  became  a  convenient  lounge  for  our  wits 
and  orators.  The  rooms  became  a  State  institution  ; 
and  when  they  were  still  insufficient  for  the  numbers 
that  crowded  into  them,  Parliament  proposed  to 
use  the  surplus  in  the  Treasury  for  their  own  diver- 
sions, and  voted  Achmet  a  grant.  He  made  so  good 
a  use  of  it  in  adding  to  the  attractions  of  his  estab- 
lishment, that,  before  long,  they  gave  him  another — 
and  then  another.    You  will  find  them  entered,  if  you 


282  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

care  to  look  in  the  Statute  Book.  Last  Session 
they  gave  him  the  most  munificent  of  all  as  a  reward 
for  his  services.  He  has  laid  it  out  in  a  great  new 
swimming-bath,  which  is  regularly  filled  by  the  tide. 
He  has  furnished  his  saloons  after  the  model  of  the 
Grand  Turk's  Divan.  I  suspect  that,  really  and  truly, 
he  was  the  Grand  Turk's  barber.  The  bath  is  to  be 
opened  to  the  world  to-morrow,  and  he  gives  a  grand 
dinner  on  the  occasion  to  his  Parliamentary  friends, 
to  which  he  has  done  you  and  me  the  honour  of 
inviting  us." 

Colonel  Goring  had  encountered  many  strange 
things  in  Dublin,  but  this  was  the  strangest  of  all. 
"  Is  it  possible,"  he  said,  "  that,  with  the  country  in 
its  present  condition,  Parliament  is  voting  away  the 
public  money  on  such  an  absurdity  as  Turkish 
Baths  ?  " 

"  And  why  wouldn't  we,  I  wonder  ? "  said  Fitz- 
herbert.  "If  we  kept  the  money  in  the  Treasury  it 
would  go  to  some  German  cousin  of  his  Majesty. 
Or  if  we  keep  our  expenses  too  low,  they  might  make 
it  an  excuse  for  extinguishing  us  altogether,  sending 
the  Parliament  about  its  business.  England,  at 
the  bottom,  cares  nothing  w^hat  we  do,  or  what  be- 
comes of  us,  except  in  war  time  ;  and  when  war 
does  come  they  only  wish  we  were  sunk  in  the  sea 
that  they  might  be  saved  the  trouble  of  defend- 
ing us." 

"  I  have  few  acquaintances  in  Dublin,"  said  the 
Colonel.  "  Whom  shall  I  meet  at  this  beautiful 
party  ?  " 

"  Almost  all  the  distinguished  men  will  be  there. 
Not  the  Chancellor,  I  suppose.  He  was  too  much 
flurried  in  the  row  yesterday.      And  Kildare  and  the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  283 

Primate  fly  high  and  will  not  make  themselves 
common.  But  you  will  find  most  of  the  Judges,  the 
Attorney  and  Solicitor-General,  all  the  Barristers  who 
are  in  the  House  of  Commons — the  best  company  in 
the  world — and  a  dozen  or  two  of  the  country  gentle- 
men besides.  Tisdale  will  be  there,  and  old  Fitz- 
Gibbon,  and  a  showy  Oxford  youth  they  begin  to 
talk  about,  called  Henry  Flood,  and  Hely  Hutchinson 
and  Malone  and  Ponsonby,  all  our  shining  lights  in 
the  Lower  House  and  a  sprinkling  of  stars  from  the 
Upper.  I  do  not  kno^y  but  what  you  may  meet  a 
Bishop.  Some  of  the  Bench  are  not  such  bad 
fellows  after  all  outside  their  profession,  and  they  will 
drink  their  three  bottles  of  claret  with  the  best  of  us. 
No  politics  are  allowed.  The  great  orators  who  tear 
each  other  to  pieces  in  the  debates,  meet  at  Achmet's 
on  the  best  of  terms,  and  get  drunk  together  like 
brothers.  You  are  invited,  partly  because  you  are  an 
original,  and  they  want  to  have  a  look  at  a  man  who 
believes  in  doing  his  duty,  but  chiefly  that  you  may 
have  a  quiet  talk  with  the  Speaker,  who  w^ishes  for 
a  conversation  with  you  without  the  fuss  of  a  formal 
interview.  We  are  to  be  there  an  hour  before  dinner. 
The  Speaker  will  meet  us,  and  Achmet  w^U  furnish 
you  with  one  of  his  dainty  little  boudoirs  which  he 
has  fitted  up  for  his  patrician  patronesses. 

Goring,  who  had  passed  his  early  days  in  active 
service  abroad,  whose  acquaintance  with  Ireland  had 
begun  in  Galway,  and  had  been  continued  among  the 
v/ild  environments  of  Bantry  Bay,  found  himself  in  a 
new  element  in  the  light  and  sparkling  society  of  the 
Irish  metropolis.  Essentially,  it  was  just  as  w^ild, 
just  as  anarchic,  as  what  he  had  left  behind  him  at 
Dunboy.     But   it  was    more  cultivated,  and  a   great 


284  ^/^'^    ^'^^'^^    CHIEFS    OF  DUX  BOY. 


deal  more  brilliant.  He  was  naturally  of  a  serious 
turn,  and  had  no  taste  for  frivolities.  His  own 
problems  hung  heavy  upon  him,  and  in  his  secret 
mind  he  thought  his  country's  representatives  might 
be  better  employed  than  they  seemed  to  be.  But  the 
airy  tone  affected  him  pleasantly,  like  champagne. 
He  had  Irish  blood  in  his  veins,  and  was  not  unwilling 
to  be  amused. 

Achmet's  establishment,  the  favourite  lounge  of 
Dublin  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  last  century,  was  an 
Orientalized  imitation  of  the  Bath  Assembly  Rooms. 
It  stood  on  the  bank  of  the  Liffey,  which,  as  the  city 
was  then  innocent  of  drains,  was  free  from  pollution. 
Instead  of  the  hot  springs  there  was  the  fresh  sea 
water  which  came  up  with  the  tide,  and  in  winter  was 
raised  by  a  warming  apparatus  to  an  agreeable 
temperature.  Saloons,  dining-room  and  library  were 
available  for  every  kind  of  entertainment.  The 
contriver  of  all  this  delightful  recreation  was  the 
favourite  of  Societ}'.  His  broken  English  passed  for 
wit.  The  latest  story  at  every  evening  party  was  of 
some  mot  or  blunder  of  the  agreeable  /\chmet.  As 
a  master  of  the  ceremonies  he  was  as  accomplished  as 
Beau  Nash,  with  the  addition  of  his  eastern  manners. 
As  on  the  present  occasion  he  was  to  be  the  host  of 
his  Parliamentary  patrons,  special  preparation  was 
required,  both  for  the  banquet  itself  and  for  the 
decoration  of  his  own  person.  He  was  to  receive  his 
guests  at  the  entrance-hall,  and  was  not  to  show  till 
they  began  to  arrive.  The  House  was  not  to  sit,  and 
the  Speaker  had  the  afternoon  to  himself.  A  word 
to  the  head  of  the  establishment  had  secured  an 
exquisite  little  cabinet  with  a  bow  window  over- 
hanging the  river.     The  air,  though  it  was  \\inter, was 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  285 

soft  and  warm.  The  sash  was  thrown  up,  and  a  h'ght 
breeze  blew  in  from  the  Pigeon  House.  Here,  when 
Goring  and  his  kinsman  arrived,  a  couple  of  hours 
before  dinner,  they  found  the  Speaker  waiting  for 
them. 

Henry  Boyle,  better  known  as  Lord  Shannon,  a 
rank  to  which  he  was  on  the  point  of  being  raised, 
was  one  of  the  triumvirs  who,  except  on  the  rare 
occasions  of  the  Viceroy's  presence,  administered  as 
Lords  Justices  the  Government  of  Ireland.  Boyle, 
Kildare,  and  the  Primate  led  the  three  parties  into 
which  the  Irish  Parliament  was  divided.  Their  objects 
were  nominally  different,  and  on  the  surface  they 
were  constantly  quarrelling.  But  there  was  an  under- 
standing between  them  behind  the  scenes,  that  their 
disagreement  was  not  to  be  .pushed  to  a  point  where 
it  might  become  dangerous  to  the  distribution  of 
power.  They  were  united  in  a  resolution  to  keep  the 
management  of  the  country  in  their  own  hands,  and 
resist  the  encroachments  of  the  London  Cabinet. 
The  Primate  represented  the  authority  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  and,  so  far  as  his  colleagues  would 
allow,  the  English  interest.  Kildare  represented  the 
old  Irish  traditions,  and  Henry  Boyle  the  constitu- 
tional patriotism  which  was  to  be  the  mother  of 
Irish  eloquence,  and  of  its  twin  brother  Irish 
corruption.  The  Speaker  was  one  of  the  wealthiest, 
and  one  of  the  most  useful  of  the  great  Irish  land- 
owners. He  was  descended  from  the  famous  Earl  of 
Cork.  His  magnificent  domains  were  the  best  im- 
proved that  were  to  be  seen  in  Munster.  He  was 
adored  by  his  tenantry,  for  he  was  the  most  munificent 
of  masters,  and  when  they  applied  for  leases  of  his 
farms  he  never  enquired  into  their  creed.      His  estate 


286  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


was  a  cultivated  oasis  surrounded  by  desolation.  In 
the  House  of  Commons  he  had  been  raised  to  the 
chair  by  his  genius,  by  his  courtesy,  and  by  his 
adroitness  as  a  party  leader.  When  it  was  his  object  to 
put  the  Castle  in  a  difficulty  he  had  a  majority  always 
at  his  back.  No  public  man  in  Ireland  more  accurately 
estimated  the  political  forces  at  work  there,  or  was 
more  skilful  in  applying  them  to  his  purpose.  Had 
the  circumstances  of  the  time  allowed  it,  he  could  and 
would  have  used  his  talents  for  the  real  benefit  of  his 
country,  but  all  such  exertions  he  knew  must  be  vain 
so  long  as  England  insisted  on  paralysing  Irish 
industry.  He  contented  himself,  therefore,  with  using 
his  influence  for  the  private  benefit  of  himself  and  his 
friends.  He  had  already  occupied  successively  the 
most  lucrative  public  offices.  He  had  virtually 
appointed  himself  to  them.  He  was  now  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Commons  and  Lord  Justice.  He  was 
about  to  be  a  Peer,  and  to  receive  a  pension  out 
of  the  public  funds  to  meet  the  expenses  of  his 
new  dignity.  He  was  tall,  handsome,  polished,  the 
finest  of  gentlemen  in  the  last  century  sense  of  the 
word,  and  was  now  in  the  meridian  of  his  life  and 
fame. 

"Colonel  Goring,"  he  said,  warmly  extending  his 
hand,  "  I  am  delighted  to  make  your  acquaintance. 
We  have  heard  much  of  you  in  the  last  two  years, 
and  everything  which  we  have  heard  has  been  to  your 
honour.  If  more  of  the  gentry  were  like  you,  Ireland 
would  be  a  happier  country  to  live  in  than  you  and  I 
are  likely  to  see  it.  But  you  have  had  a  hard  time  of 
it,  and  I  fear  a  dangerous  one." 

"  I  am  a  soldier,  sir,"  said  Goring,  "  and  soldiers 
must  not  complain  of  dangers.     I  have  tried  to  be  of 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  287 

some  use  in  the  district  where  I  Hve.  I  wish  I  had 
more  success  to  boast  of." 

"  Success  never  comes  up  to  endeavour,  even  with 
the  strongest  of  us,"  the  Speaker  replied.  "  Only  the 
lower  animals  act  out  their  nature  completely.  Man 
aims  beyond  his  powers  and  so  falls  short.  But  it  is 
better  to  aim  high  and  partly  fail,- than  to  crawl  con- 
tentedly on  a  lower  level.  I  should  be  well  satisfied  if 
I  could  give  as  good  an  account  of  myself  as  you  can  do. 
But  alas  !  our  poor  country  is  not  a  place  for  honour- 
able ambitions.  If  you  are  ill  off  down  in  Bantry,  we 
in  Dublin  are  little  better  off,  as  you  have  had  an 
opportunity  of  seeing.  The  poor  Chancellor  has  not 
got  over  it  yet.  I  was  in  the  middle  of  the  riot,  too, 
and  the  rascals  had  hold  of  me,  but  they  let  me  go 
when  they  ran  off  with  their  old  lady  to  the  woolsack. 
Bah  !  What  would  you  have  ?  England  will  not  let 
us  break  the  heads  of  our  scoundrels  ;  she  will  not 
break  them  herself ;  we  are  a  free  country,  and  must 
take  the  consequences." 

"  The  Irish  make  good  soldiers,  sir,"  answered  Gor- 
ing, "  and  no  man  can  be  a  good  soldier  who  has  not 
fine  qualities  in  him  of  some  kind.  Certain  races  are 
like  the  nobler  kind  of  dogs.  Train  a  dog,  and  rule 
him,  and  he  becomes  brave,  loyal,  faithful,  affectionate, 
and  wise.  Give  him  liberty,  and  he  grows  into  a 
mangy  cur,  or  a  ferocious  wolf." 

"  You  are  a  philosopher.  Colonel,  as  v/ell  as  a 
soldier,"  said  the  Speaker.  "  Our  countrymen  are 
strange  creatures,  but  if  we  begin  discussing  their 
qualities,  we  shall  waste  all  our  time.  You  saw  the 
Primate  yesterday  ?  " 

"  I  did." 

"  You  have  settled  a  colony  of  Protestants  at  Dunboy. 


288  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 

Most  of  them  are  Nonconformists,  and  you  want  a 
chapel  and  a  minister  for  them.  You  asked  for  the 
Primate's  consent,  and  he  would  not  give  it  you.  You 
might  perhaps  force  him  if  you  brought  an  action  in  the 
Four  Courts;  but  it  is  just  as  hkely  that  you  would  fail, 
for  the  Act  has  been  construed  to  cover  only  forms  of 
Dissent  which  were  understood  and  acknowledged 
when  it  was  passed.  So  at  least  the  Judges  interpret 
it ;  and  they  revise,  or  ask  the  Bishops  to  revise  for 
them,  the  opinion  of  every  new  sect  that  applies  for 
registration.  An  action  would  cost  you  a  great  deal 
of  money,  and  you  could  have  no  certainty  of  success. 
The  Archbishop  knows  this,  and  will  run  the  risk. 
He  hates  Dissenters  of  all  kinds.  He  is  particularly 
sore  against  the  Wesleyans,  Swaddlers  he  calls  them, 
because  he  has  been  obliged  to  tolerate  the  poor  devils. 
He  listens  to  any  calumny  against  them.  He  told  you 
that  they  made  the  riot.  He  does  not  believe  it,  but 
he  tries  to  believe  it ;  and  he  and  the  Viceroy  will  so 
represent  matters  across  the  w^ater,  because  he  wants 
the  Swaddlers  to  be  discouraged.  The  people  that 
you  have  brought  in  belong  to  the  other  prophet, 
Whitfield  I  believe  they  call  him.  They  are  the  old 
dangerous,  fighting  Protestants,  like  the  men  that 
Cromwell  brought  over,  desperate  fellows  in  the  field, 
and  very  useful,  I  daresay,  to  you,  but  never  well 
inclined  to  Bishops.  The  Primate  shudders  at  the 
thought  of  them.  He  knows  very  well  that  if  a  strong 
Nonconformist  interest  grows  up  again  over  Ireland, 
it  will  go  hard  with  him  and  his  Church,  and  cleverer 
fellows  than  he  have  been  of  the  same  opinion.  Jona- 
than Swift  said  the  chief  danger  to  the  peace  of 
Ireland  was  the  Presbyterians  ;  the  Catholics  were 
dangerous  once,  but  their  teeth  had  been  drawn,  and 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  289 

they  could  do  no  more  harm,  while  the  Presbyterians 
were  like  an  angry  cat,  ready  to  fly  at  you  with  fang 
and  claw.  As  to  me,  I  consider  that  in  saying  this  the 
great  Jonathan  let  his  temper  get  the  better  of  him. 
He  had  not  a  good  one,  as  perhaps  you  know.  But 
that  is  neither  here  nor  there.  You  see  1  know  what 
passed  between  his  Grace  and  yourself,  and  I  wanted 
to  explain  to  you  why  he  acts  as  he  is  doing." 

"  To  me,"  said  Goring,  "  his  Grace  is  acting  like 
the  clergyman  who,  when  his  house  was  on  fire, 
allowed  no  one  to  fetch  water  who  was  not  a  com- 
municant. Little  can  he  know  of  the  condition  of 
the  southern  counties  of  Ireland.  Fifty  years  ago 
there  were  Protestant  settlements  all  over  Munster. 
They  are  melting  off  like  snow,  and  unless  they  can 
be  revived  all  the  old  troubles  will  inevitably  come 
back  again.  That  I  am  not  myself  ill-affected  to  the 
Church  of  Ireland,  I  have  given  a  sufficient  proof  in 
building  a  church,  though,  by-the-bye,  the  Archbishop 
seemed  to  make  a  crime  of  it.  But  I  consider  my 
Nonconformist  tenants  to  be  as  good  Christians  as  I 
am,  and  many  of  them  a  great  deal  better.  They 
will  not  stay  with  me  unless  their  consciences  are 
respected,  and  if  they  go,  I  suppose  I  must  go,  and 
return  to  my  old  profession.  If  I  remained,  I  should 
probably  be  killed,  but  even  that  would  be  more 
tolerable  than  to  remain  to  witness  the  ruin  of  all 
that  I   have  tried  to  do." 

The  Speaker  was  silent  for  some  seconds,  looking 
hesitatingly  at  Goring,  as  if  there  was  something 
which  he  wished  to  say,  yet  doubted  whether  he  could 
prudently  say  it. 

"  Colonel  Goring,"  he  said  at  length,  "  you  complain 
of  Irish  anarchy  ;  but  even  anarchy  has  its  advantages. 

19 


290  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


You  asked   the  Archbishop's  leave  to  have  a  chapel. 
That  was  a  mistake  on  your  part.     You  should  have 
taken  leave  without  asking.     Build  your  chapel  if  you 
have  not  built  it  already,  and  call  it  a  room.     Set  a 
few  forms  and  desks   at   one   end   of  it   where   the 
children  can  have  their   Bible  lessons  and  be  taught 
reading  and  writing.     Nobody  will  meddle  with  you. 
You    will    receive    some    letter   from    your    Bishop. 
Don't  answer  it.     The   Bishop  will  feel  that  he  has 
done  all   that  he   was   required  to  do,  and  will  thank 
you  in  his  heart  for  sparing  him  further  trouble.     If  he 
bothers  you  further,  tell  him  that  the  judgments  of  the 
Church  Courts  cannot  be  executed  in  those  parts.  As  to 
your  going  away,  it  is  nonsense.     We  can't  spare  you, 
and  we  can't  spare  your  colonists  either.     They  are 
worth  their  weight  in  gold  to  us.     You,  Colonel,  since 
that  business  at  Derreen,  have  been  the  most  popular 
man  in  Ireland.     Pity  you  let  the  fellow  go  when  you 
might  so  easily  have  put  a  ball  through  him.     But  I 
wish  as  your  friend,  as  a  real   friend,  which  you  must 
believe   me  to   be,  to  say  a  few  words  to  you  on  a 
subject  about  which,  from  the   many  letters  which  we 
have  had   from   you,  you   plainly  do  not  understand 
our  feeling.     You  are  surprised  and  hurt  because  we 
have  been  so  languid,  and  because  the  gentry  in  your 
county   have    been   so   languid    in     supportmg    your 
efforts    to    suppress    the    contraband   trade.     Take   a 
friend's  advice,  and    do    not   for  the  future    let  your 
exertions  go  beyond  the  evident  sense  of  the  country. 
If  the  rogues  are  landing  arms,  like  your  acquaintance 
Morty  Sullivan,  or  are  taking  recruits  to  the  Brigade, 
or  are  engaged  in  pirating  work,  be  down  upon  them 
as  hard  as  you  please.     But  as  to  the  smuggling,  it  is 
the   only  refuge  we  have  against  the  intolerable  laws 


THE    TWO  CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  291 

by  which  England  has  crushed  our  commerce.  When 
ruling  powers  are  unjust,  nature  reasserts  her  rights. 

"  You  are  surely  jesting  with  me,"  Goring  answered 
with  a  smile.  "  Law  is  law,  and  we  who  are  executive 
officers  of  the  Government  must  at  least  try  to  make 
it  obeyed.  These  contraband  people  are  the  cause  of 
all  the  crime  and  disorder  on  the  Irish  Coast.  Those 
who  break  one  law  break  all.  Murder,  piracy,  re- 
bellion, they  are  ready  for  any  of  them.  How  can  any 
country  prosper  when  the  people  are  taught  from  their 
cradles  that  laws  are  only  made  to  be  1  aughed  at  ?" 

"  Nothing  can  be  more  true,  my  dear  Colonel  ;  but 
those  are  precisely  the  conditions  under  which  it 
pleases  our  sovereign  masters  that  the  affairs  of  this 
country  shall  be  administered.  We  live  under  a  set 
of  laws  which  we  cannot  repeal  and  are  not  allowed  to 
execute.  How  is  it  with  the  Catholics  ?  By  law  no 
priest  may  officiate  who  is  not  registered.  Not  one  in 
fifty  is  registered,  yet  no  one  is  ever  punished.  By 
law  no  Catholic  bishop  ought  to  be  in  Ireland.  They 
reside  openly  in  their  palaces ;  they  preach,  they 
ordain,  they  rule  their  dioceses  as  effectively  as  our 
own  prelates.  Not  only  does  no  one  call  them  to 
question,  but  we  ourselves  in  the  government  use  their 
help  in  keeping  order.  By  the  law  no  Catholic  can 
own  land  or  hold  a  lease  for  more  than  thirty  years. 
The  estates  of  Catholics  are  now  as  safe  as  those  of  Pro- 
testants. They  protect  themselves  by  a  transparent 
evasion,  while  half  the  tenants  in  Munster  are  Catho- 
lics in  reality  if  not  in  name.  By  law  no  Catholic  can 
practise  in  the  learned  professions.  Go,  ask  at  the 
Four  Courts  how  many  Catholics  are  on  the  roll  of 
attorneys.  The  laws  are  on  our  Statute  Book.  We 
do    not   try   to    enforce    them,    for    England    would 

19* 


292  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV. 

interpose  if  we  did.  But  the  whole  system  that  we 
Hve  under  is  an  instruction  to  us  that  laws  are  made 
to  be  disobeyed.  And  what  wonder  is  it  if  we  on  our 
parts  are  careless  about  executing  trade  enactments 
which  ruin  us,  in  order  to  benefit  our  masters  ?  By- 
and-bye,  when  they  see  their  prohibitions  cannot  be 
carried  out,  the  E2nglish  consent  to  do  us  justice.  Till 
then  they  never  will." 

"  God  help  Ireland  then,"  said  the  Colonel,  sorrow- 
fully.    "  God  help  us  all,  and  send  us  another  Oliver." 

"Do  not  let  the  Primate  hear  you  say  so,"  the  Speaker 
answered,  "  and  in  default  of  Oliver  I  recommend  you 
to  do  as  others  do,  and  swim  with  the  stream.  High 
notions  of  duty  are  admissible  when  time  and  place 
suits  them,  but  they  will  not  work  in  Ireland  in  this 
age  that  we  live  in.  You  do  not  think  me  serious.  I 
wish  I  was  not.  Oliver  conquered  this  country.  He 
drove  the  fighting  Irish  across  the  Shannon  into 
Connaught.  He  partitioned  the  lands  of  the  rebels 
among  his  own  soldiers,  or  among  Puritan  Colonists 
from  England  and  Scotland.  He  gave  us  Free 
Trade  and  a  political  union  with  Great  Britain.  Had 
he  lived  ten  years  longer  the  English  race,  the  English 
law,  the  English  character,  would  have  been  rooted  as 
firmly  in  Leinster  and  Munsteras  the  Scots  are  rooted  in 
the  North.  Even  as  it  was,  so  long  as  Oliver's  founda- 
tions were  left  standing  we  had  a  chance  of  making 
something  of  the  country.  We  had  English  farmers, 
English  mechanics,  English  artisans  in  tens  of 
thousands.  America  was  far  off,  and  more  were 
ready  to  pour  in  if  they  could  have  political  security. 
France  and  Flanders  sent  us  their  Protestant  refugees. 
We  had  our  shipyards,  and  fifty  vessels  might  be  seen 
lying  in  the   Liffey,  where   now  there  are  but  yonder 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  2q: 


half-dozen  miserable   coal   brigs.     We  were  so  pros- 
perous   that     England     was    jealous    of    us.      They 
destroyed  our   shipping  industry  by  their  Navigation 
Act.     They   closed  our  woollen    mills,   and   all   those 
busy  hands  that  were  employed    in  them   were   cast 
adrift,  and  sought  more  hospitable  shores.     Even  of 
our  fleeces,  the  best  in  Europe,  they  would  not   let  us 
make  our  own  market ;  they  required  them  for  them- 
selves, and  at  such  price  as  they  were  pleased  them- 
selves to  fix.     I  tell  you  that  nature  herself  rejects  so 
iniquitous  a  system.     If  we  are  robbed  of  our  legiti- 
mate trade    the    people    will,    and    must,    open    other 
channels  for  themselves.     The  very  life  of  the  country 
depends   upon  it.     They  order  us  to  sell  our  wool  in 
the  English   market.     They   have  so  tied  us  up  that 
they  think  they  can  compel  us  to  let  them  have  it  on 
their  own  terms,  and   they  offer  us  a  fourth  part  of 
what  we  can  get  for  it  at  Nantes  and  Rochelle.     They 
overreach  themselves   with    their  own  avarice.      You 
might  as  well  try  to  stop  the  Shannon  from  running 
into  the  Atlantic  as  to  prevent  Irish  wool  from  going 
to  France  when  there  is  such  a  profit  to  be  made  upon 
it.     Full  two-thirds  of  our  fleeces  are  taken  there  ;  and 
for  that  matter  two-thirds  of  our  salt  beef,  and  bacon, 
and  butter,  and  the  rest  of  it.     Every  rank,  every  pro- 
fession in  Ireland  is  interested  in  maintaining  the  con- 
traband runners.     It  is  not  only  a  point  of  honour  and 
patriotism,  but  our  veiy  existence   depends  upon  it. 
The  labourer  would  starve,  the  farmer  could  not  pay 
his  rent,  without  the  French  market.      We  landowners 
would  be  driven  to  potatoes  grown  onour  own  domains  ; 
the  absentee  would  be  a  beggar  in  his  London  palace. 
You  cannot  squeeze  water  out  of  a  dry  sponge.  More 
money   is   carried  over  each   year  to  London  for  the 


294  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


absentee  landlords  than  the  whole  profits  of  such 
legitimate  commerce  as  England  allows  us.  Where 
does  that  money  come  from  ?  It  comes  from  France  ; 
and  if  along  with  it  come  a  few  hogsheads  of  claret 
and  brandy,  we  enjoy  ourselves  none  the  less  because 
they  have  paid  no  duty  to  his  Majesty's  customs,  and 
our  lives  are  all  the  merrier.  If  the  poor  fellows  who 
risk  their  necks  in  carrying  on  the  business  are  hunted 
by  the  King's  cruisers,  I  do  not  see  why  we  Irish  should 
be  especially  zealous  in  helping  them  ;  and  if,  as  you 
say,  it  leads  to  lawlessness,  our  English  masters,  and 
not  we,  are  responsible." 

"  And  how  long  is  such  a  state  of  things  to  last  ?  " 
said  Gordon. 

"  That  depends  on  the  pleasure  of  the  Parliament 
at  Westminster ;  or  on  the  power  of  the  English  to 
keep  the  seas  and  prevent  the  French  from  coming 
over.  If  a  French  force  was  once  landed,  we  should 
have  a  pretty  business  here.  It  is  of  course  possible 
tliat  they  may  discover  that  they  are  cutting  their 
own  throats.  It  may  be,  though  I  confess  1  have 
small  expectations  of  it,  that  they  may  have  some 
prickings  of  conscience.  But  nature  keeps  an  accu- 
rate account  in  such  things.  The  longer  a  bill  is  left 
unpaid,  the  heavier  the  accumulation  of  interest.  It 
will  be  sent  in  one  day,  and  our  sons  and  grandsons 
will  have  to  settle  it.  For  myself  I  see  nothing  but 
to  live  for  the  day  that  is  passing  over  us." 

The  ideas  thus  presented  to  Colonel  Goring's  mind 
were  so  bewildering  that  he  had  to  collect  himself 
before  he  could  answer.  He  sate  gazing  mechanically 
out  of  the  window  at  a  coal  barge  which  had  drifted 
upon  a  broken  pile,  and  was  being  slowl\'  upset  as  the 
tide  went  back  and  left  it.     "  We  are  told,"  he  said  at 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  295 

last,  "  that  a  wise  man  mindeth  his  own  matters,  but  a 
fool's  eyes  are  in  the  ends  of  the  earth."  The  English 
are  a  splendid  people  ;  they  are  conquering  India  and 
colonizing  America,  and  their  little  Island  is  being 
made  the  centre  of  an  Empire  ;  it  might  be  better 
for  them  in  the  end  perhaps  if  they  could  spare  more 
attention  to  these  miserable  back  premises  of  theirs. 
I  am  obliged  to  you,  sir,  for  the  candour  with  which 
you  have  spoken  to  me.  I  am  sure  you  will  pardon 
me  when  I  tell  you  that  I  cannot  go  along  with  you. 
No  nation  can  prosper  when  the  units  composing  it 
voluntarily  neglect  their  duties  ;  and  if  we  arc 
wronged  we  do  not  mend  the  matter  by  doing  wrong 
ourselves.  But  what  you  say  confirms  me  in  a  pur- 
pose which  I  had  half  formed  before  I  came  to  Dublin. 
You  have  shown  me  that  in  struggling  with  the 
smugglers  at  Bantry  I  have  undertaken  an  impossible 
task.  As  long  as  I  am  an  officer  of  the  revenue  I 
must  and  will  attempt  to  repress  them  ;  but  there  is 
no  obligation  on  me  to  retain  my  commission.  I  have 
enough  to  do  without  it,  and  I  can  spend  my  time 
more  usefully  if  I  confine  my  attention  to  my  own 
estate  and  my  own  people.  Their  disposition  has 
been  to  live  peaceably  with  their  neighbours,  and  if 
trouble  has  risen  it  has  been  on  account  of  the  busi- 
ness in  which  I  have  had  to  employ  them.  We  shall 
get  on  better  together  when  all  that  is  at  an  end.  I 
shall  therefore  thank  you  if  you  will  send  down  my 
successor  and  will  leave  me  to  my  own  affairs." 

"  I  believe  you  are  right,"  said  the  Speaker  laughing. 
"If  you  go  on  as  you  have  been  doing  hitherto,  you 
will  inevitably  get  yourself  killed  ;  and  how  will  the 
country  be  the  better  for  that  ?  Yes,  yes.  Stick  to 
your  colonists,  and   keep  them  to  the  mines  and  the 


296  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

fishing.     Neither  you  nor  they  can  thrive  as  Ireland 
now  is,  if  they  are  to  do  the  work  of  a  coastguard  and 
a  police.     We  ought  not  to  have  allowed  you  to  try. 
We  cannot  relieve  you  at  this  moment.     We  are  at 
war  with  France  in    reality,  though  the  beggars  won't 
declare    it.     The  chances   are   that    they   will    try    a 
descent  on  our  coast,  and  an  officer  of  your  experi- 
ence cannot  be  spared.     But   we  can  let  you  off  the 
Customs'  work,  and,  my  dear  friend,  make  your  mind 
easy  about  what  the  Archbishop  said  to  you.     I  can't 
promise  you  a  license,  but  I  can  promise  you  that  you 
shall  never  be  troubled  for  the  want  of  it.     You  can- 
not live  in  Ireland  without  breaking  laws  on  one  side 
or    another.     Pecca  fortiter,  therefore,  as  your  friend 
Luther  said.     Keep  your  chapel  open.     Preach  there 
yourself  if  you  like.     I  am  told  you  do   sometimes, 
and   do   it  admirably  well.     Don't  try  to   make  con- 
verts ;  it  will  get  you  into  trouble   with  the   priests  ; 
and  let  your  minister  go  on  quietly  attending  to  the 
school  and  the  people.     If  the  Primate  threatens  you, 
refer  him  to  me.     For  my  own  part,  I  not  only  wish 
you  success,  but  I    think  that  if  you  can  make  those 
saplings  which   you   have   planted  live   and  grow  on 
Irish   soil,   you   will   have  done    more   for  this   poor 
country  than  all  the  eloquence  of  the  illustrious  Par- 
liament over  which  I  have  the  honour  to  preside. 

'*  But  Achmet  calls  us  to  dinner.  The  guests  wait ; 
we  must  go.  Let  me  see  you  again  at  my  own  house 
to-morrow  morning." 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  297 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Perhaps  nowhere  in  Europe  was  more  brilliant 
society  to  be  met  with  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  than  in  the  Irish  metropolis.  The  cross 
between  the  Saxon  and  Celtic  temperaments  had 
created  a  delightful  combination  of  lightheartedness 
and  serious  thought,  and  the  two  elements  sparkled 
into  wit,  like  alkali  and  acid,  when  circumstances 
broug-ht  them  into  contact.  Of  business  in  Dublin 
there  was  not  much.  The  commercial  policy  of 
England  had  closed  the  ordinary  avenues  of  progress, 
and  the  uncertain  political  prospects  and  the  dis- 
couragement of  industry  gave  an  impulse  where  none 
was  needed  to  the  recklessness  of  the  national 
disposition. 

The  conscientiousness  of  the  Anglo- Irish  was  not 
large,  and  they  had  faults  innumerable.  But  their 
worst  enemy  could  not  accuse  them  of  being  dull. 
Their  levity  was  the  natural  resource  of  a  high- 
spirited  and  gifted  people,  who  were  placed  in  a 
situation  which  nothing  which  they  could  do  could 
improve.  Their  animal  spirits  remained  when  all 
else  was  gone,  and  if  there  was  no  purpose  in  their 
lives  they  could  at  least  enjoy  themselves. 

When  the  Speaker  with  Goring  and  Fitzherbert 
joined  the  company,  they  found  forty  gentlemen 
collected  in  the  Hall  which  adjoined  the  Dining 
Saloon.  Their  infidel  entertainer,  magnificently 
dressed     in     silk     and    turban,    received    them    with 


298  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


Oriental  dignity,  yet  a  dignity  so  tempered  as  to 
imply  that  he  was  accepting,  rather  than  conferring  a 
favour.  Though  he  was  the  giver  of  the  dinner,  he 
professed  himself  too  humble  to  preside,  and  he  con- 
ducted the  Speaker  to  the  chair.  In  broken  English 
he  welcomed  Goring,  and  thanked  him  for  the 
honour  of  his  presence.  "  We  know  you  Sir,"  he 
said,  "  if  you  not  know  us.  We  all  hear  how  you 
shoot  that  leaf,  and  let  go  that  dam  rascal.  We  all 
grieve  Sir  you  no  kill  him,  but  you  brave  man  Sir. 
dam  brave,  and  I  shake  your  hand  Sir,  and  is  proud 
of  your  acquaintance." 

No  accomplishment  stood  higher  in  Irish  estima- 
tion than  skill  in  the  use  of  a  pistol,  as  indeed  was 
natural,  for  none  was  more  required  ;  and  many  an  eye 
glanced  curiously  or  admiringly  on  Goring  as  he  took 
his  place  at  the  Speaker's  right  hand.  The  dinner  was 
magnificent,  the  wine  superb,  and  every  one  showed 
at  his  best.  Judges  left  their  dignity  behind  with 
their  \\'igs  and  robes,  and  told  stories,  not  always 
decent,  which  convulsed  the  room.  Old  Parliamen- 
tary hands  tried  the  metal  of  young  aspirants,  b)- 
quoting  and  affecting  to  commend  their  absurdities. 
The  chief  target  of  wit  of  this  kind  was  young 
Henry  Flood,  who  had  the  aroma  of  his  maiden 
speech  about  him,  and  whose  luxuriances  were  a 
tempting  mark.  Every  political  notability,  either 
already  known  to  fame  or  to  become  known  in  the 
next  generation,  were  amongst  the  guests  of  the 
evening.  Irish  barristers,  concerned  as  they  were 
each  day  of  their  lives  with  the  misadventures  or 
misdoings  of  the  most  amusing  people  in  the  world, 
related  anecdote  against  anecdote,  the  genuine 
absurdities  of  which  no  fiction  could  improve.     Puns 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  299 

rattled  like  hail-showers  ;  and  sarcasms  unpoisoned  by 
malice,  but  keen  as  a  Toledo  rapier,  were  exchanged 
like  passes  in  a  fencing  school.  Jests  were  delivered 
and  shot  back  again,  as  tennis-balls  are  returned  over 
the  net.  Gradually,  as  the  wine  flowed  freely,  the 
rays  of  humour  concentrated  on  the  person  of 
Achmet.  It  appeared  that  having  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  prosperous  and  growing  business,  he 
had  been  looking  about  him  for  some  one  who  would 
share  his  fortunes  with  him.  More  than  one  he  might 
not  hope  for,  being  in  a  Christian  land,  but  on-e  at 
least  he  might  find  who  would  forget  his  origin  in 
consideration  of  his  wealth  and  his  good  looks.  And 
indeed  no  sooner  was  his  purpose  known,  than  the 
difficulty  was  to  select  among  the  competitors  who 
were  eager  to  be  asked.  He  might  have  stocked  a 
harem,  had  the  laws  allowed,  the  young  ladies  flock- 
ing about  him  like  flies  about  a  ripe  peach.  He  had 
but  to  choose  and  be  happy.  Fate,  however,  always 
perverse  on  these  occasions,  so  ruled  that  Achmet, 
instead  of  taking,  as  he  might  have  done,  either  maid 
or  widow  who  would  have  been  his  and  have  made 
no  conditions,  fixed  his  affections  in  a  quarter  where 
there  had  arisen  most  complicated  difficulties.  The 
fair  Miss  Biddy  Flanigan  had  no  objection  to 
Achmet  himself.  She  thought  him  beautiful,  she 
thought  him  charming.  It  would  have  been 
delightful  to  her  to  carry  off  a  prize  so  much  desired 
from  so  many  rivals.  But  she  had  scruples  of  con- 
science. Achmet  she  thought  must  forsake  his  errors 
shave  his  beard,  and  be  baptized.  She  could  not  be 
the  wife  of  an  unbelieving  Turk.  And  yet,  and  yet, 
she  could  not  be  certain  at  the  bottom  of  her  mind 
whether  the  singularity  of  his  creed  and  his  appearance 


300  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


were  not  his  principal  attractions,  and  whether  an 
Achmct  beardless  and  a  Christian  would  be  any 
better  than  a  shorn  Samson.  Thus  her  situation  was 
perplexing  in  the  extreme.  She  would  not  give  him 
up.  She  would  not  marry  him  so  long  as  he  was  a 
Turk.  She  was  not  sure  that  she  would  marry  him 
if  he  ceased  to  be  a  Turk.  Achmet  pretended  to  a 
conscience  also,  and  would  not  throw  over  Mahomet 
and  the  Koran  unless  he  was  certain  of  his  reward  ; 
while,  supposing  all  these  intricacies  could  be  dis- 
entangled, a  further  question  had  been  raised  about 
the  good  man's  origin — Who  and  what  was  he,  and 
where  had  he  been  living  before  he  came  to  Dublin  ? 

Matters  were  in  this  situation  at  the  time  of  the 
dinner.  Achmet's  matrimonial  prospects  had  al- 
ready been  discussed  at  every  Dublin  tea  table. 
The  present  opportunity  was  too  tempting  to  be  neg- 
lected ;  one  question  led  to  another,  and  Miss  Biddy's 
difficulties  became  the  general  talk  of  the  party.  It 
happened  unfortunately  that  Miss  Biddy  herself  was 
listening  to  all  that  w^as  going  on.  She  had  expressed 
a  wish  to  her  lover  to  see  the  gentlemen  at  the 
banquet,  and  to  hear  their  speeches.  A  gallery  ran 
round  the  upper  part  of  the  dining  and  other  public 
rooms.  Here  Miss  Biddy  with  half  a  dozen  other 
girls  was  installed  behind  a  curtain,  and  not  a  word 
that  was  said  escaped  her.  In  vain  Achmet  en- 
deavoured to  turn  the  conversation.  With  the  scent 
breast  high,  the  hounds  could  not  be  whipped  off. 
One  of  the  party  declared  that  he  had  been  making 
enquiries  at  the  request  of  the  lady's  relatives,  and, 
though  he  could  not  absolutely  prove  it,  there  was 
good  reason  to  believe  that  their  host  was  the  person 
who  had    strangled  the  Christians  in   the  Sea  Tower 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  301 


at  Constantinople.  Another,  who  had  made  the 
grand  tour,  insisted  that  in  a  certain  SeragHo  at  the 
Golden  Horn,  a  group  of  forsaken  ladies  were  pining 
for  a  husband  who  had  deserted  them,  while  Achmet 
had  disappeared  simultaneously.  The  circumstances 
were  full  of  suspicion.  Young  Hely  Hutchinson,  the 
most  positive  of  them  all,  insisted  that  their  friend  was 
no  less  a  person  than  Candide  himself,  who  had  run 
away  from  Miss  Cunegunde,  and  had  left  her  washing 
clothes  at  the  Sultan's  palace. 

Miss  Biddy  had  never  heard  of  Candide,  but  she 
hated  Cunegunde  from  that  moment.  Achmet 
defended  himself  better  than  might  have  been 
expected,  considering  his  imperfect  acquaintance 
with  English,  and  more  than  once  turned  the  laughter 
on  an  assailant  by  a  startling  rejoinder.  The  evening 
wore  on.  Champagne  corks  had  crackled  like  musketry 
fire.  Claret  of  the  finest  flavour  that  had  ever  ripened 
on  the  Garonne  had  flowed  in  streams,  and  loyal  toasts 
had  been  drunk,  and  disloyal  also,  for  a  hot  Jacobite 
had  proposed  the  three  B's,  and  no  one  had  ob- 
jected with  more  than  a  laugh.  The  rooms  began 
to  swim  ;  the  night  grew  hot ;  and  more  than  one 
grave  and  learned  counsellor  unbuttoned  his  waist- 
coat and  loosened  his  neckcloth,  while  through  the 
mask  of  his  official  features,  the  wild  Irish  face  came 
into  focus,  like  the  second  landscape  in  a  dissolving 
view.  The  wine  which  had  been  brought  up  was 
exhausted.     The  elder    guests    began    to  think   they 

had    had    enough,    and    Sir    John ,   the    Chief 

Justice,  suggested  an  adjournment.  Remonstrances 
rose  loud  from  the  lower  end  of  the  taole.  There  was  a 
cry  for  another  dozen  of  Lafitte,  and  the  proposal  was 
caught  up  with   so   much    enthusiasm,  that    Achmet 


302  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 

was  dispatched  to  the  cellar  with  a  basket.  The 
majority  of  the  party  clearly  enough  intended  to 
make  a  wet  night.  Most  of  them  were  seasoned 
vessels,  who  could  carry  half  a  dozen  bottles  to  bed 
with  them,  and  sleep  none  the  worse,  and  the 
supply  for  which  Achmet  had  been  sent  would  pro- 
bably not  be  the  last. 

Goring,   who   had    drunk   nothing,    and    had    been 
excused  as   a   stranger,    sat   quietly   by   the  Speaker 

watching  what  was  going  on.    Sir  John however, 

and  one  or  two  others,  determined  to  attempt  an 
escape  while  their  feet  were  still  steady  enough  to 
carry  them.  It  was  now  dusk  ;  daylight  was  almost 
gone,  and  candles  were  not  yet  lighted.  The  door 
by  which  they  had  entered  was  at  the  lower  end  of 
the  saloon,  and  led  into  the  outer  hall,  from  which 
there  was  an  easy  exit  into  the  street.  Watching 
his  opportunity,  Sir  John  slid  from  his  seat  and  was 
half-way  down  the  room  before  his  flight  was 
observed.  Free,  however,  as  most  things  were  in 
Ireland,  there  was  no  freedom  in  the  regulations  of 
convivial  assemblies.  Guests  on  such  occasions  were 
not  allowed  to  shirk.  A  cry  rose,  "  Against  the 
rules."  The  master  of  the  Kildare  foxhounds,  who  was 
present,  gave  a  "  View  Holloa !  "  and  with  "  Yoicks  ! 
Forward  !  Stole  away  !  "  started  in  pursuit,  with  half 
the  company  at  his  heels.  Sir  John  sped  on,  with  the 
pack  after  him  in  full  cry.  He  dashed  open  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  entrance  door,  and  plunged  into 
the  darkness  beyond.  Alas,  for  him  !  it  was  not  the 
door  into  the  hall  at  all,  but  the  door  into  the  new 
bath  room,  where  the  great  basin  stood  brimming 
full,  and  the  Chief  Justice  shot  head-foremost  into  the 
middle  of  it 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  303 

Close  behind  followed  the  pursuers,  in  heedless 
impetuosity.  They  could  see  nothing.  They  could 
not  have  stopped  themselves  if  they  had.  Over 
went  the  first  flight.  Those  behind  dropped  on  the 
floor,  but  the  crowd  pressing  on  stumbled  over  them, 
and  all  went  down  together.  There,  amidst  peals 
of  laughter,  and  shouts  for  help,  for  the  water  was 
deep,  the  Legislature  and  Counsellors  of  Ireland  were 
splashing,  plunging,  seizing  hold  of  each  other,  unable 
to  see  anything,  and  such  of  them  as  could  not  swim 
running  a  chance  of  being  drowned.  Happily,  ropes 
were  hung  from  the  roof  at  short  intervals  for  the  use 
of  the  legitimate  bathers.  Those  who  had  their  senses 
least  disturbed  caught  hold,  and  gave  a  hand  to  the 
rest,  while  the  seniors  from  the  top  of  the  table,  with 
the  Speaker  and  Coding,  came  in  with  candles,  and 
threw  light  upon  the  extraordinary  scene. 

Achmet  returning  from  the  cellar  with  his  basket, 
found  the  dining  room  deserted,  and,  from  the  noise 
in  the  adjoining  apartment,  guessed  too  surely  the 
catastrophe  which  had  happened.  Dropping  the 
wine,  tearing  off  his  turban,  and  forgetting  in  his 
distraction  who  and  what  he  was,  he  dashed  into 
the  confusion.  "Och,  Thunder  and  Turf!  "  he  shrieked. 
"  Nineteen  members  of  Parliament  squattering  in  the 
water  like  so  many  goslings,  and  my  Lord  Chief 
Justice  like  the  ould  gander  at  the  head  of  them. 
Oh  !  wirra,  wirra  !  what  will  we  do  now  ?  Sure  it  is 
murdered  for  this  I'll  be,  and  that  will  be  the  laste 
of  it." 

Wild  as  was  the  excitement,  the  whole  party,  wet 
and  dry,  were  struck  dumb  by  this  astounding 
exclamation. 

"  A   Murracle !  a   Murracle  !  "   shouted    a   youthful 


304  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

senator,  who  was  swimming  leisurely  about  among 
his  struggling  companions.  "  The  Turk  has  turned 
Tipperary  boy.  I'll  swear  to  the  brogue.  In  with 
him,  we'll  baptize  him  on  the  spot." 

"  No  Turk,"  shouted  the  self-detected  Achmet, 
"  No  Turk  at  all,  at  all.  Sure,  it  is  Pat  Joyce 
from  Kilkenny  I  am — no  less — and  as  good  a 
Christian  as  the  Pope  of  Rome." 

Loud  was  the  laughter,  but  louder  yet  was  the 
shriek  that  rang  from  the  gallery.  On  the  rush  of  the 
guests  into  the  bath  room,  Biddy  and  her  companions 
had  followed  by  the  passage  above,  and  she  had 
arrived  just  in  time  to  witness  her  lover's  metamor- 
phosis. 

"  Ah,  ye  false  thief !  "  she  screamed.  "  And  ye  tould 
me  it  was  a  circumcised  haythen  that  ye  were,  and 
yc'd  the  Sultan  for  your  godfather,  and  that  if  I 
married  ye,  I'd  be  a  Princess  at  the  worst.  It  is  tear 
your  eyes  out,  I  will,  when  I  can  catch  ye,  ye  desaving 
villain." 

"  Whisht,  Biddy,  and  be  asy  with  you,"  answered 
her  lover.  "  Don't  be  bothering  the  gintlemen  till  we 
get  them  out  of  the  water." 

By  this  time,  Sir  John,  very  angry  and  half 
drowned,  was  on  dry  ground  again.  The  Speaker, 
choking  with  laughter,  said  : 

"  This  is  a  hanging  business,  Mr.  Patrick,  or  what- 
ever ye  are.  Ye  have  conspired  against  the  lives  of 
half  the  representatives  of  Ireland,  and  that  is  death 
by  statute,  Irish  and  English.  You  planned  it  your- 
self, you  scoundrel,  because  some  of  us  voted  for 
cutting  down  your  grants.  But,  Sir  John  will  catch 
his  death,  shivering  here  in  the  wet.  Bring  some  dry 
clothes,  if  )'ou  have  any  that  a  Christian  can  wear, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  305 

and  some  brandy  and  mulled  claret,  and  then  we  will 
put  you  on  your  trial — see  what  shall  be  done  with 
you." 

Achmet's  wardrobe  had  been  furnished  only  for  his 
assumed  character.  Silk  robes,  pelisses,  shawls,  huge 
bagged  trousers,  were  hunted  out  and  brought  down. 
When  the  supply  still  fell  short,  the  ladies'  bathing 
dresses  were  drawn  upon,  and,  one  way  or  another,  the 
whole  party  were  furnished  out  and  dried.  Even  Sir 
John  recovered  his  amenity,  when  the  mulled  claret 
came,  and  warmed  him  back  into  good  humour  ;  and 
in  wild  spirits  at  the  ridiculousness  of  the  adventure, 
they  formed  themselves  into  a  Court  to  try  the 
offender,  the  Chief  Justice  presiding. 

The  offence  was  palpable  ;  but  the  audacity  of  the 
imposition,  and  the  skill  with  which  it  had  been 
carried  out,  recommended  the  prisoner  for  pardon. 
It  was  remembered  that  his  baths  and  his  rooms 
would  be  none  the  worse  because  he  was  Patrick 
Joyce,  and  not  the  Sultan's  barber.  To  prove  his 
Christianity,  he  was  sentenced  to  drink  a  pint  of 
brandy  on  the  spot,  which  he  did  without  flinching. 
Other  penalties  were  thought  of.  Henry  Flood,  who 
liked  to  show  off  his  acquaintance  with  the  East, 
proposed  that  Achmet,  in  Turkish  costume,  should 
ride  a  donkey  through  the  streets  with  his  face  to  the 
tail,  and  Pat  Joyce  pinned,  in  large  letters,  on  his 
back.  Hely  Hutchinson  suggested  that  the  adven- 
ture should  be  entered  in  the  Journals  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  as  a  lesson  against  further  grants  in  aid. 
But,  after  terrifying  the  unfortunate  wretch  with  these 
and  other  more  frightful  suggestions,  the  Court  agreed 
on  a  verdict  of — Guilty,  with  good  intentions  ;  and 
they  signed  a  Round  Robin  to  the  outraged  Biddy, 

20 


3o6  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

recommending  her  suitor  to  mercy,  on  the  ground 
that  a  decent  lad,  with  a  good  Irish  name  to  him, 
was  a  fitter  mate  for  her  than  a  Turk,  and  that 
Achmet  had  only  been  all  along  what  she  professed 
that  she  wanted  to  make  him. 

It  was  now  midnight,  and  the  party  broke  up.  In 
sedan  chairs  and  in  coaches — where  a  wisp  of  straw 
had  first  been  lighted,  to  warm  them — Achmet's 
guests  were  carried  to  their  homes  in  their  parti- 
coloured apparel  ;  and  Goring  and  Fitzherbert  walked 
back  to  the  College,  the  grave  and  earnest  Colonel 
too  much  diverted  with  the  incidents  of  the  evening 
to  be  able  to  moralize  over  them.  Ireland's  fortunes 
might  be  committed  to  a  singular  set  of  legislators, 
but  he  had  never  met  with  more  entertaining  com- 
panions.* 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

No  signs  of  the  evening's  adventure  were  to  be  seen 
in  the  Speaker's  appearance,  when  Goring  called 
upon  him — as  he  had  been  directed  to  do — on  the 
following  morning.  Whether  a  dozen  or  two  of  the 
City  mob  had  been  cut  down  in  the  streets,  or  the 
brightest  ornaments  of  the  Bench  or  the  House  of 
Commons  had  been  half  drowned  in  a  bath,  affected 
little  the  careless  good-humour  of  Dublin  society. 
The  centre  of  gravity  was  always  being  disturbed  by 
something,  and  casualties  were  only  noticed  as  they 
furnished  matter  for  amusement.  The  Speaker  him- 
self was  as  comxposed  as  if  nothing  had  happened,  nor 
did  he  make  the  least  allusion  either  to  the  dinner  or 
to  what  had   occurred  at  it.     He  had  been  occupied 

*  I  am  indebted  for  the  adventure  at  the  Turkish  Bath  to  the  Personal 
Sketches  of  Sir  Joseph  Barrington. 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  307 

since  an  early  hour  with  serious  business,  for  the 
EngHsh  Mail  had  come  in,  and  his  table  was  covered 
with  freshly-opened  letters. 

"  There  are  news  from  London,"  he  said,  "  and  they 
will  interest  you.  There  is  no  declaration  of  war  yet, 
but  they  are  fighting  everywhere.  Young  Howe  is 
plucking  the  feathers  from  the  French  fleet  on  the 
American  coast  ;  he  has  taken  another  frigate  ;  and 
the  French  are  preparing  at  Brest,  in  earnest,  for  a 
descent  on  the  Irish  coast.  We  know  not  where  it  is 
to  be  ;  but  your  country,  Colonel,  is  the  likeliest  point. 
I  do  not  think  they  will  try  anything  serious  before 
the  Summer;  but  you  may  be  sure  they  will  have 
their  agents  busy  all  about  the  South,  to  keep  up  the 
agitation.  You  will  have  to  get  back  to  your  post  at 
once.  There  will  be  three  frigates  between  Cork  and 
Kinsale,  within  call,  if  you  want  help." 

"  I  am  at  my  country's  service,"  said  Goring. 
*'  What  you  direct,  I  will  do — or  try  to  do.  But  I 
I  must  remind  you  of  what  passed  between  us  yester- 
day. I  said  that  I  must  resign  my  post  in  the  Revenue 
Service — and  you  were  good  enough  to  approve." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  the  Speaker.  "  Quite  true— the 
revenue  service  is  no  fit  occupation  for  such  as  you. 
You  must  hold  on,  however,  just  at  this  moment  ;  for 
all  the  correspondence  with  France  is  carried  on 
through  the  smugglers — the  rascals  ! — and  they  will 
want  sharper  looking  after  than  ever.  But  we  must 
not  compromise  your  colonists  down  there.  Well  I 
know  how  precious  they  are,  and  how  important  it  is 
that  they  should  be  kept  together.  You  will  judge 
how  interested  I  am  about  it,  when  I  tell  you  that  I 
have  already  seen  the  Primate  this  morning.  I  had 
to  pull  him  out  of  bed  to  come  down  to  me,  and  he 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 


was  in  the  worst  of  humours  ;  but  he  was  frightened 
out  of  his  wits  about  a  French  Invasion,  and  more 
tractable,  on  the  whole,  than  I  expected.  I  am  sorry 
to  say  he  was  immovable  about  the  license  for  your 
chapel  and  school.  He  hates  Protestant  settlements 
in  the  South,  while  I  would  encourage  them.  He 
does  not  like  you  very  well.  I  don't  know  what  you 
said  to  him.  He  declares  you  are,  yourself,  no  better 
than  a  Dissenter  of  the  worst  kind,  and  your  people 
are  Cromwellians,  Independents,  Anabaptists,  rebels 
at  heart,  and  the  rest  of  it.  He  swears  he  will  do 
nothing,  and  will  allow  nothing  to  be  done,  which  can 
seem  like  official  countenance. 

"  I  told  him  that  you  made  up  a  hundred  and 
twenty  fighting  men,  all  to  be  thoroughly  depended 
upon.  You  had  shewn  what  you  could  do,  and  in 
the  present  state  of  things  to  discourage  such  a  force, 
which  was  costing  nothing,  would  be  something  like 
treason.  His  Grace  started  at  this,  so  I  followed  it 
up  by  saying  that  I  was  writing  to  England,  and 
might  feel  it  my  duty  to  mention  the  subject  to  the 
Cabinet.  This  finished  him,  for  he  is  desperately 
afraid  of  being  reported  upon,  so  the  sum  of  what 
we  agreed  on  is  this.  Your  chapel  is  not  to  be 
registered  ;  but,  for  the  present  at  least,  no  questions 
will  be  asked  about  it,  and  you  will  be  on  the  same 
footing  as  most  of  the  Catholic  chapels.  This,  I 
suppose,  will  content  you.  Meanwhile  our  young 
engineering  genius.  General  Vavasour,  has  been  sent  to 
Cork  to  see  after  the  fortifications.  We  consider  that 
Berehaven  ought  not  to  be  left  undefended  either. 
The  harbour  is  the  largest  and  safest  on  the  coast. 
At  present  the  enemy's  ships  can  run  in  and  lie  there 
as  long  as  they  please  in   perfect  security,  and   the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV.  309 

very  presence  of  a  French  frigate  will  set  the  country 
wild.  England  cannot  afford  to  keep  a  ship  there. 
We  intend,  therefore,  to  have  a  fort  on  Bere  Island, 
with  a  company  of  infantry  and  a  few  artillery-men, 
who  are  to  be  maintained  there  as  long  as  the  war 
lasts  ;  and  we  have  that  confidence  in  yourself  that  we 
shall  ask  you  to  take  the  command.  Such  at  least 
will  be  my  advice  to  the  Government.  The  Primate 
will  not  oppose,  so  I  think  I  can  answer  for  it  that 
the  appointment  will  be  offered  you.  Vavasour  shall 
go  round  in  a  frigate  and  survey  the  ground.  If  you 
ask  him  to  stay  with  you,  you  will  find  him  capital 
company,  only  keep  him  off  the  Round  Towers  and 
the  ancient  Serpent  worship." 

The  warmest  hopes  which  Goring  had  brought 
with  him  to  Dublin,  were  more  than  realized  by  a 
proposal  so  gratifying.  A  position  of  authority  and 
command  would  give  him  the  influence  which  he  had 
hitherto  wanted,  and  the  additional  security  would 
enable  his  wife  to  return  to  him  with  safety.  The 
refusal  of  the  registration  of  the  chapel,  however, 
carrying  with  it  as  it  did  a  sentence  upon  his  school, 
would  be  quite  certain  to  wound  and  irritate  his 
people.  Their  life  in  Ireland  in  a  quasi  warlike 
character  had  increased  the  stubbornness  and  inde- 
pendence which  belonged  to  their  creed  ;  and  they 
were  less  inclined  than  ever  to  submit  to  accept  a 
toleration  which  consisted  in  an  evasion  of  the  law. 
They  were  their  Master's  servants,  and  if  they  might 
not  wear  his  livery  openly  in  Ireland,  they  would  go 
elsewhere.  They  attached  immeasurable  importance 
to  their  school  discipline,  as  the  only  means  of  saving 
their  children  from  catching  the  temper  of  the  sur- 
rounding population.    They  would  not  only  resent  the 


3IO  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

slight  which  had  been  perseveringly  cast  on  therfi,  but 
would  feel  the  injury  as  something  not  to  be  endured. 
In  all  this,  Goring  himself  actively  sympathised. 
Since  his  conversation  with  the  Archbishop,  he  had 
doubted  strongly  whether  he  had  any  right  to  call 
himself  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Ireland.  With  the 
head  of  that  Church  he  found  that  he  had  nothing 
in  common,  while  in  faith  and  conviction  he  was  one, 
heart  and  soul,  with  his  own  congregation.  For  the 
sake  of  honesty  and  consistenc}'  he  was  tempted  to 
sever  the  connection  ;  and  he  hesitated  and  he  told  the 
Speaker  so,  to  accept  another  commission  which  would 
pledge  him  afresh  to  the  Establishment. 

He  was  listened  to  with  impatience.  He  asked  for 
time  to  deliberate.  The  Speaker,  who  was  a  man  of 
the  world,  and  had  to  deal  with  questions  as  they 
rose  from  a  practical  point  of  view,  conceived  these 
new  scruples  to  be  as  absurd  as  they  were  unseason- 
able. He  had  a  hundred  things  to  attend  to,  and 
what  was  to  be  decided  must  be  decided  at  once. 
Men  who  had  shown  such  fine  qualities  as  the  Dunboy 
Protestants  must  have  intelligence  enough  to  under- 
stand that  the  laws  of  the  country  could  not  be 
altered  at  once  to  please  them.  They  ought  to  be 
satisfied  to  know  that  they  would  not  be  molested. 
"  As  to  yourself,  my  dear  Colonel,"  he  said,  "  I  have 
every  respect  for  scruples  of  conscience,  but  I  would 
remind  you  that  man  has  two  duties  ;  his  duty  to  God, 
and  his  duty  to  his  country.  Conscience  extends  to 
both,  and  you  have  no  right  to  disable  yourself  from 
serving  your  King  by  exaggerated  conceptions  of 
what  your  religious  belief  requires  of  you.  You  have 
sense,  and  you  have  experience,  and  you  can  balance 
one  claim  against  the  other.     If  the  law  required  you 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  311 


when  you  accepted  a  commission,  to  burn  incense  to 
the  Devil,  of  course  you  would  refuse.  If  the  law 
required  you  to  swear  that  you  would  obey  the  Pope, 
you  wouldn't  do  it.  As  it  is,  you  are  only  asked  to 
communicate,  which  you  have  done  many  times 
already,  with  no  particular  harm  that  I  know  of  You 
can  be  an  '  occasional  communicant,'  I  believe  that  is 
the  phrase.  I  don't  know  much  about  such  things, 
but  I  do  know  that  your  own  prophets  continued  in 
the  Church  till  the  Bishops  turned  them  out.  In  short, 
my  good  friend,  it  is  your  clear  duty  to  stick  to  your 
work.  Nobody  can  do  it  as  well  as  you  can.  I  don't 
understand  this  creed  of  yours,  but  I  do  see  that  it 
makes  a  race  of  men  who  can  be  depended  upon  like 
no  others,  when  there  is  fighting  work  on  hand  and 
danger  to  be  faced.  Therefore  I,  for  my  part,  wish  you 
heartily  well  in  this  and  all  your  enterprises.  I  tell  you 
again,  you  shall  not  be  meddled  with.  The  Bishops 
may  bark,  but  they  will  not  bite  while  this  war  lasts, 
and  afterwards,  perhaps  we  will  draw  their  teeth.  So 
now  God  be  with  you.  Vavasour  shall  have  his  orders, 
and  the  sooner  you  are  back  at  Dunboy  the  better. 

''  By-the-bye,  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  we  have  news 
of  your  friend  Morty.  After  he  escaped  through 
Dursey  Sound,  he  made  his  way  to  France,  refitted 
at  Blake's  yard  at  Nantes,  and  went  to  sea  again, 
they  say,  with  a  letter  of  marque  in  proper  form.  He 
is  bound  for  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  where, 
unless  he  is  caught,  we  shall  hear  of  him  burning  and 
plundering.  If  he  can,  he  will  raise  the  Irish  in  the 
Sugar  Islands,  and  set  them  to  murder  the  planters. 
On  the  second  day  that  he  was  out,  he  robbed  a 
Liverpool  ship  off  Scilly,  and  sailed  away  with 
twenty  thousand   pounds  and  a  dozen  prisoners  that 


312  THE    TWO   CHIEF'S   OF  DUNBOY. 

he  holds  to  ransom.  Conceive  the  mischief  that  such 
a  fellow  will  do  before  we  can  get  him  hanged.  You 
see  what  you  are  responsible  for  in  having  let  him  go." 

Brief  as  had  been  Colonel  Goring's  stay  in  Dublin, 
a  large  experience  had  been  crowded  into  those  few 
days.  He  had  seen  the  very  shrine  and  temple  of 
the  amazing  thing  called  the  x^nglo-Irish  Govern- 
ment, the  functions  of  which,  so  far  as  he  could  read 
them,  were  to  do  what  ought  not  to  be  done  and  to 
leave  undone  what  ought  to  be  done.  The  reckless- 
ness distressed  him  ;  the  levity  shocked  him.  He  was 
no  longer  surprised  at  the  indifference  with  which  he 
had  been  left  to  struggle  unsupported  in  Bantry  Bay. 
He  was  as  alive  to  the  ridiculous  side  of  it  all  as  the 
wittiest  Counsellor  at  Achmet's  dinner,  and  could 
laugh  at  what  he  had  seen  till  his  eyes  ran  over.  But 
he  did  not  care  to  prolong  his  visit.  The  position 
which  the  Speaker  had  offered  him,  and  which  he  had 
not  felt  at  liberty  to  refuse,  promised,  if  he  could, 
reconcile  his  people  to  it,  to  make  his  situation  at 
Dunboy  safer  and  more  easy  than  it  had  been  ;  and  as 
the  realities  of  war  were  already  at  work,  and  a  visit 
from  an  armed  enemy  was  any  day  possible,  he  felt 
the  urgency  of  the  Speaker's  instructions,  and  was 
ready  to  be  off  at  once.  He  could  not  but  feel  a 
certain  relief  at  learning  that  Morty  was  far  away. 
It  was  not  that  he  feared  him,  but  he  could  not  shake 
off  the  feeling  that  Morty  was  dangerous  to  him,  and 
would  again  in  some  way  or  other  be  connected  with 
his  fate.  The  bravest  man  is  uneasy  when  he  knows 
that  he  has  a  deadly  enemy  on  the  watch  for  him  in 
his  immediate  neighbourhood. 

Thus,  on    returning    from    his    interview    with   the 
Speaker,  he    gave  his  servant  orders  to  prepare  for 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY,  313 

immediate  departure.  He  took  leave  of  the  Provost, 
with  a  promise  to  return  in  better  times.  Of  his 
kinsman  he  did  not  take  leave,  for  Fitzherbert,  to  his 
extreme  pleasure,  asked  to  be  allowed  to  accompany 
him.  They  were  nearly  of  the  same  age.  They  had 
been  thrown  together  as  children,  but  had  rarely  met 
since.  Goring  had  been  absent  on  service.  Fitzherbert 
had  followed  a  distinguished  career  at  school  and 
college.  He  had  won  scholarships  and  gold  medals, 
and  had  for  several  years  been  Fellow  of  Trinit}'. 
Now,  when  they  were  again  thrown  together,  their 
opposite  qualities  were  interesting  to  each  other. 
Fitzherbert,  being  well  provided  for,  had  kept  clear  of 
the  three  black  Graces,  neither  of  which  (as  Irish  life 
was  then  constituted)  had  too  good  a  reputation.  He 
had  a  clear  eye  for  men  and  things,  but  he  did  not 
see  that  it  was  his  business  to  mend  them,  and  he 
preferred  the  attitude  of  a  spectator,  amusing  himself 
with  watching  the  chicaneries  of  political  life.  He 
despised  the  patriots,  because  he  knew  what  Irish 
patriotism  meant.  He  distrusted  enthusiasm,  and  his 
temperament  inclined  him  to  the  sceptical  tendencies 
of  the  age.  Careless  of  worldly  advancement,  he 
moved  ireely  in  a  society  which  courted  because  it 
feared  him,  enjoying  what  he  could  find  to  entertain 
him,  and  making  his  own  sarcastic  comments  on  what 
he  saw  and  heard.  To  such  a  man,  independent  of 
their  relationship,  the  character  of  Goring  was  an 
attractive  study.  When  men  talked  of  duty  and  dis- 
interested motives,  Fitzherbert  generally  believed  them 
to  be  either  fools  or  rogues.  He  used  to  say  that 
on  the  rare  occasions  when  he  had  gone  against  his 
own  interest  to  do  something  which  he  thought  right, 
he  had  found  invariably  that  he  had  better  have  left  it 


314  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


alone.  Once  or  twice  he  had  gone  out  of  his  way  to 
be  kind  to  people  at  his  own  cost.  He  had  always 
had  his  face  scratched  for  it.  They  would  take  what 
he  gave,  but  they  never  forgave  him  for  laying  them 
under  an  obligation.  And  he  used  to  say  that  they 
were  quite  right,  because  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  be- 
nevolent person  had  some  sinister  object  of  his  own,  and 
the  victim  of  his  bounty  really  owed  him  nothing.  In 
the  long  run  the  safest  rule  for  every  one  was  to  follow 
his  own  interest.  He  must  keep  the  Commandments. 
He  must  not  lie,  or  cheat,  or  steal  ;  but  within  those 
lines  a  wise  man  would  always  do  what  was  best  for 
himself.  Nobody  would  then  misunderstand  him ; 
all  would  be  clear  and  above-board,  and  the  general 
result  would  be  a  better  state  of  things  than  could 
ever  rise  from  efforts  after  exaggerated  virtues.  With 
a  mind  so  constituted  Fitzherbert  would  naturally  feel 
little  sympathy  with  his  cousin's  religious  enthusiam 
and  spiritual  convictions.  But  he  found  them  com- 
bined in  Goring  with  a  simplicity  and  practical 
vigour  unlike  anything  which  hitherto  he  had 
personally  experienced,  and  he  found  himself  specu- 
lating on  a  problem  which  had  often  perplexed  him. 
Why  was  it  that  while  in  his  own  age  the  religious 
professors  were  either  charlatans,  or  at  least  unfit  for 
the  rough  work  of  the  world,  in  the  two  preceding 
centuries  they  were  another  order  of  beings  ?  In  the 
struggle  of  the  Reformation  the  neutral  mass  of  the 
European  nations  would  have  acquiesced  in  any  decision 
which  would  have  left  them  their  properties  and 
their  lives.  Political  liberty  and  freedom  of  conscience 
had  been  won  by  fanatics,  or  by  such  persons  as  the 
world  now  called  fanatics.  Every  country  had  the 
same  experience.     In  France  it  was  the  Huguenots, 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  315 

in  the  Low  Countries  the  Calvinists,  in  Scotland  the 
Covenanters,  in  England  the  Puritans,  in  Ireland  the 
Boys  of  Derry  and  Enniskillen.  The  brunt  of  the 
conflict  everywhere  had  been  borne  by  men  of  strongly 
marked  religious  character,  who,  so  far  from  being  un- 
practical, had  achieved  an  extraordinary  victory.  Nor 
was  it  in  war  and  politics  only  that  their  distinguished 
qualities  were  shown.  It  was  the  same  in  the  com- 
mon business  of  life.  The  best  of  the  artisans,  the 
most  successful  merchants  and  manufacturers,  the 
seamen  who  had  built  up  England's  ocean  empire 
the  successfully  industrious  everywhere,  had  been  men 
of  the  same  type.  What  did  it  all  mean  ?  What  could 
be  the  explanation  of  the  change  ?  Often  Fitzherbert 
had  asked  himself  and  could  find  no  answer;  and 
now  this  cousin  of  his  had  come  across  him  as  a 
revenant  from  the  old  age.  Here  again  was  an 
ardent  professor  of  religion  who  was  doing  work 
of  the  same  kind,  and  doing  it  admirably  well. 
He  had  begun  by  studying  him  as  a  curiosity. 
A  character  so  natural,  so  vigorous,  so  cheerful,  so 
entirely  indifferent  to  personal  consequences,  first 
puzzled  him  as  contradicting  his  theories,  than  woii 
his  respect,  and  finally  his  genuine  admiration.  He 
still  looked  on  Goring  as  half  crazy,  and  considered 
that  unless  he  had  some  one  to  see  after  him  he  would 
come  to  disaster  ;  but  he  was  profoundly  interested, 
and  became  anxious  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  this 
colony  of  fighting  Protestants  which  had  so  exaspe- 
rated the  Archbishop. 

Goring,  on  the  other  hand,  found  under  Fitz- 
herbert's  outward  cynicism  an  essentially  honourable 
nature,  an  acute  intellect,  and  a  knowledge  of  men 
and  things  incomparably  greater  than  his  own.     His 


3i6  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


life  at  Dunboy  had  been  lonely,  and  for  his  wife's  sake, 
who  had  insisted  on  rejoining  him,  as  well  as  for  his 
own,  he  was  delighted  with  the  prospect  of  a  visitor 
who  would  brighten  them  up  w^hen  they  were  inclined 
to  be  out  of  spirits. 

Among  the  gentlemen  of  the  county  he  had  many 
acquaintances,  but  hardly  a  friend.  Most  of  them 
disliked  him  for  an  activity  which  they  felt  as  a 
reproach  to  themselves.  They  might  have  fine 
qualities  of  their  own,  but  the  Colonel  and  they  were 
so  far  apart  that  they  failed  to  appreciate  one  another. 
In  his  kinsman  he  found  an  Irishman  who  neither 
drank,  nor  raced,  nor  gambled,  who  was  reputed  the 
best  talker  in  Dublin,  yet  did  not  think  that  the  first 
duty  of  man  was  to  say  something  witty,  and  who 
could  tell  him  many  things  which  he  wanted  to  know. 
With  such  a  guest  as  Fitzherbert,  with  the  promise  of 
another  visitor  in  the  famous  General  Vavasour,  and 
the  prospects  of  an  improved  order  of  things  which 
Vavasour  was  to  introduce,  he  looked  forward  to  his 
return  home  with  better  spirits  than  he  had  known 
since  Lord  Shelbourne's  death  and  the  failure  of  his 
hopes  at  Kilmakilloge. 

His  return  was  not  a  day  too  soon.  He  had  been 
absent  little  more  than  three  weeks,  but  doubt  and 
distrust  had  begun  to  spread  where  hitherto  there  had 
been  only  unanimity  and  resolution.  French  agents 
were  busy  all  over  the  South  spreading  disaffection. 
Once  more  the  population  were  inflated  with  the  hope 
which  had  so  often  betrayed  them  that  a  Catholic 
army  would  soon  arrive  for  their  deliverance.  It 
showed  itself  in  the  insolence  of  their  outward  de- 
meanour. It  showed  itself  in  acts  of  audacity  and 
defiance  which  hitherto  they  had  been  too  cowardly 


rilE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  317 


to  venture  on.  No  secrets  were  ever  kept  long  in 
Ireland.  It  leaked  out  by  one  channel  or  another 
that  the  captain  of  the  Aiolus  had  been  rebuked  fcr 
remaining  so  long  at  Dunboy  ;  that  the  Colonel  had 
been  refused  any  further  assistance.  It  was  even 
said  that  he  was  in  a  scrape  for  his  action  at  Glen- 
gariff,  and  had  been  called  to  Dublin  to  answer  for 
himself.  Morty's  splendid  escape  at  Dursey  was  a 
Nationalist  triumph  ;  and  the  colonists,  who  had  lately 
lived  on  tolerable  terms  with  the  people  whomi  they 
employed  at  the  mines,  found  their  boats  again 
injured,  their  nets  cut,  their  cattle  maimed,  and  their 
fences  thrown  d^own  in  the  night.  They  were  not 
men  to  submit  patientl}^  to  injuries  of  this  kind. 
There  had  been  fights  in  which  several  of  the  White- 
boys  had  been  hurt,  one,  it  was  supposed,  mortally. 
The  Priest  of  the  adjoining  chapel  had  drawn  and 
forwarded  a  memorial  to  the  Government,  repre- 
senting that  members  of  his  flock  had  been  attacked 
by  the  Protestant  settlers.  The  Act  of  Parliament 
forbade  the  Catholics  to  carry  arms,  and  they  had 
been  unable  to  defend  themselves.  He  therefore 
prayed  the  Government  to  protect  them  and  disarm 
the  Colonists  as  well. 

Thus,  on  the  Colonel's  arrival  at  home,  instead  of 
the  peace  and  improvement  which  he  looked  for,  he 
found  all  in  confusion,  and  the  elders  of  his  congrega- 
tion in  serious  deliberation  what  they  ought  to  do. 
There  were  difficulties  at  the  mines  as  well.  The  plan 
for  the  restoration  of  the  furnaces  on  the  Shelbourne 
estate  having  failed,  the  ore  had  to  be  taken  to 
Swansea  to  be  smelted  ;  and  as  the  communications 
became  irregular  with  the  breaking  out  of  the  war 
trade  had  been  suspended  and  profits  diminished.  The 


3i8  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

colonists  were  of  tough  material,  and  not  easily  dis- 
couraged ;  but  they  began  to  fear  that  it  was  not  the 
will  of  God  that  these  Protestant  settlements  on  the 
Irish  coast  should  prosper.  Everywhere  it  was  the 
same  story.  Plantations  had  been  tried  in  many  parts 
of  the  South  during  the  past  century.  They  had 
withered  one  after  another,  as  if  in  such  a  climate 
they  could  not  live.  Failure  so  universal  showed  the 
hand  of  Providence.  They  had  relations  at  Boston 
and  Rhode  Island,  where  Protestant  communities 
were  thriving  as  in  a  Promised  Land.  In  New 
England  there  was  unfettered  worship,  and  there  was 
worldly  prosperity.  They  began  to  think  that  they 
had  sin-ned  like  the  children  of  Ephraim  in  hanging 
back  when  their  friends  had  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and 
therefore  it  was  that  they  were  encompassed  with 
enemies.  They  had  met  together  to  consult  the  Lord, 
and  the  majority  of  them  had  concluded  that  they 
would  make  their  decision  turn  on  the  report  which  the 
Colonel  was  to  bring  back  with  him  from  Dublin.  If 
they  could  be  allowed  their  chapel  and  their  minister, 
if  they  could  be  allowed  their  school,  where  they  could 
educate  their  children  according  to  their  own  discipline, 
they  would  face  their  other  troubles  without  complaint ; 
they  would  understand  that  it  was  the  Lord's  pleasure 
for  them  to  remain.  If,  while  for  the  disloyal  Catho- 
lics there  was  still  to  be  unbounded  indulgence,  those 
on  whom  the  defence  of  the  English  interests  had  been 
thrown,  as  the  only  loyal  part  of  the  population,  were  to 
be  harassed  with  disabilities,  treated  as  an  inferior  order 
of  beings,  and  permitted  to  exist  only  at  the  pleasure 
of  the  Church  authorities,  they  would  dishonour  their 
Master  in  Heaven  if  they  submitted  to  such  degrading 
bondage. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY 


319 


In  this  disposition  Colonel  Goring  found  the  congre- 
gation with  whom  he  had  fought  so  many  battles  against 
fortune,  just  at  the  moment  when  he  was  expecting 
that  better  days  were  about  to  dawn.  He  had  looked 
forward,  perhaps  with  a  shade  of  vanity,  to  showing 
his  kinsman  a  set  of  men  the  liKC  of  whom  he  had 
never  seen  before,  men  who  had  the  spirit  of  God  in 
them,  of  the  same  stuff  and  nature  with  those  whom 
he  had  read  of  and  wondered  at.  He  found  them 
unchanged  ;  but  the  same  temperament  and  beliefs 
which  gave  them  their  strength  and  quality  were  now 
threatening  the  ruin  of  his  hopes.  He  was  not  en- 
tirely surprised.  He  had  feared  from  the  first  the 
effect  of  their  resentment  if  their  demand  was  rejected. 
But  he  had  made  much  to  Fitzherbert  of  the  disci- 
pline and  obedience  which  he  would  find  among  them. 
The  obedience  was  there,  but  it  was  to  the  supposed 
will  of  a  Superior  Power  which  they  had  their  own 
means  of  ascertaining. 

He  had  heard  nothing  to  prepare  him  for  what  he 
was  to  find.  They  arrived  late.  He  was  to  meet  his 
people  in  the  chapel  in  the  morning,  to  hear  what 
they  had  to  say,  and  to  tell  them  in  return  the  answer 
which  he  had  brought  back.  It  was  deep  winter, 
and  night  had  fallen  before  they  reached  Dunboy, 
so  that  it  was  with  some  curiosity  that  Fitzherbert 
opened  his  window  and  looked  about  him  when  he 
awoke  in  the  morning.  A  warm  south-westerly 
wind  was  blowing  in  from  the  Atlantic;  a  swell 
was  breaking  on  the  west  end  of  Bere  Island,  and 
the  clouds  hung  low  on  Hungry  Hill.  But  the  sky 
was  open  in  the  east,  and  the  crests  of  the  waves 
in  the  Bay  were  sparkling  in  the  sunshine ;  while 
mountains    and    woods    were    steeped    in    the    soft 


320  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

purple  green  which  makes  the  winter  landscape  in 
the  south  of  Ireland  so  peculiarly  beautiful.  The 
village  was  early  astir.  The  boats  had  been  hauled 
up  on  the  shingle  ;  oars  and  sails  had  been  stowed 
away,  and  the  nets  spread  to  dry  on  the  poles.  A 
large  concourse  of  people  was  gathering  about  the 
house ;  men  and  women  plainly  but  solidly  dressed 
in  broadcloth  and  home-spun  woollens.  Fresh  groups 
continued  to  arrive  while  Fitzherbert  watched,  and  he 
calculated  at  last  that  there  could  not  be  less  than  two 
hundred  of  them.  A  bell  rang,  and  they  filed  into 
the  chapel  behind  the  house.  He  hastily  completed 
his  dressing  and  followed  them. 

If  he  had  been  struck  by  their  appearance  when  seen 
at  a  distance,  their  faces  impressed  him  the  more  re- 
markably when  seen  close  at  hand.  They  were  of  all 
ages,  from  grey-bearded  seniors  who  had  passed  their 
three-score  and  ten,  to  youths  just  entering  upon 
manhood  ;  but  in  the  features  neither  of  old  nor  young 
was  there  an\'thing  of  the  strained  austerit}^  which 
Fitzherbert  looked  for.  They  were  grave,  as  became 
the  place  where  they  were  assembled  ;  but  they  looked 
frank  and  open,  and  their  creed,  whatever  it  was,  ga\-e 
them  no  appearance  of  unrealit}'.  If  there  was  any 
common  expression  belonging  to  them  all  it  was  of 
quiet  unconscious  steadiness.  He  was  a  little  surprised 
when  Mrs.  Goring  sang  Ken's  Morning  Hymn,  and 
the  whole  congregation  joined,  showing  they  were 
familiar  with  it.  A  prayer  followed,  and  then  Colonel 
Goring  told  his  tale,  or  that  part  of  it  which  the  special 
anxiet}'  was  to  hear.  There  were  two  points  on  which 
their  minds  were  most  exercised  ;  one  was  their  chapel 
service,  the  other  the  education  of  their  children.  In 
both  of  these  he  had  to  say  the  Primate  would  make 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  321 


no  concession.  To  the  first  they  had  a  right  under 
the  statute,  whether  the  Bishops  approved  or  not,  and 
he  intended  to  appeal  to  the  law.  The  second  was 
less  simple.  Tlie  right  of  teaching  was  rigidly  reserved 
by  the  statute  to  the  clergy  of  the  Establishment.  He 
had  hop^d  to  get  over  the  difficulty  with  the  help  of 
the  minister  at  Glengariff.  But  education  they  were 
naturally  and  properly  extremely  anxious  about. 
Their  children  were  in  continual  danger  of  being 
influenced  by  the  Catholic  population  round  them. 
They  could  be  saved  only  by  a  strict  system  of 
instruction  which  would  take  hold  of  their  characters  ; 
and  the  clergyman's  interference  had  been  found 
intolerable.  On  this  subject,  which  was  so  very  vital, 
he  was  sorry  to  inform  them  that  no  formal  concession 
was  to  be  looked  for.  At  the  same  time,  he  was 
empowered  by  very  high  authority  to  tell  them  that 
they  might  do  as  the  Catholics  did.  The  Catholics 
had  their  unregistered  priests,  and  their  schools,  and 
no  one  interfered  with  them.  They  might  have  their 
chapel  and  their  school  discipline,  and,  as  long  as  they 
did  not  press  for  a  formal  license,  no  question  would 
be  asked.  As  an  evidence  that  the  Government 
appreciated  what  they  had  done,  and  intended  to 
support  them,  he  added  that  a  fort  was  to  be  built  on 
Bere  Island,  of  which  he  himself  was  to  have  the 
command. 

Goring's  communication  was  coldly  received. 
Towards  himself  the  affection  was  unimpaired,  but 
the  news  which  he  brought  was  evidently  unwelcome. 
A  venerable  old  man,  the  patriarch  of  the  congrega- 
tion, rose  to  reply.  "  It  was  no  novelty,"  he  said, 
that  the  elect  should  suffer  for  conscience  sake. 
Their  fathers  had  borne  the  cross  when  the  nails  hid 

21 


322  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


torn  into  their  flesh.  The  trials  to  which  they  were 
called  were  of  a  milder  kind,  but  at  all  times  the 
portion  of  the  saints  had  been  to  suffer,  and  so  it 
would  continue.  They  had  come  to  Ireland  as 
strangers  into  a  strange  land,  remembering  what  God 
had  done  there  by  their  hands  in  other  days,  and 
hoping  it  might  be  given  to  them  to  do  Him  service 
as  their  fathers  had  done.  But  they  had  cause  to 
fear  that  they  had  mistaken  His  purpose.  The 
authorities  whom  they  had  supported  had  dis- 
owned them.  The  toleration  extended  to  other 
bodies  of  Christians  was  withheld  from  them.  They 
could  only  meet  and  pray  together,  and  hear  the 
Word,  by  evading  or  breaking  the  law,  a  course  of 
action  unbecoming  in  Christian  men.  Their  young 
people  could  not  be  married  by  their  own  minister. 
They  could  not  bury  their  own  dead,  but  were 
obliged  to  lay  them  in  the  common  graveyard  among 
strangers.  They  had  borne  these  hard  terms,  and 
would  have  continued  to  bear  them,  but  they  found 
now  that  they  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  bring  up 
their  children  according  to  their  conscience,  or  if  they 
chose  to  do  so  they  must  risk  the  indignity  of  being 
prosecuted  as  criminals  under  a  statute  which  neither 
they  nor  their  fathers  had  been  able  to  endure.  The 
providence  of  God  had  opened  to  them  a  land 
beyond  the  Atlantic  where  they  could  live  in  peace. 
They  had  taken  counsel  with  Him,  and  it  had  been 
borne  in  upon  them  that  they  ought  to  go.  They 
loved  and  honoured  Colonel  Goring.  They  looked 
up  to  him  as  the  commander  set  over  them  by  God  ; 
and  as  long  as  the  battle  was  with  the  open  enemies 
of  the  truth  they  had  been  willing  to  carry  on  the  un- 
equal struggle.     But  they  were  cast  off  and  despised. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  323 

Even  if  liberty  of  worship  was  conceded  to  them, 
the}^  would  still  be  unable  to  train  their  children  as 
they  desired.  The  Colonel  was  dear  to  them  all,  and 
they  did  not  wish  to  part  from  him.  Would  not  he 
remain  their  leader  still,  and  himself  conduct  them 
to  the  land  of  promise  ?  Let  him  shake  off  the  dust 
of  his  feet  against  the  inhospitable  land,  and  ac- 
company them  to  America,  and  they  pledged  them- 
selves never  to  leave  him  ! 

A  hum  of  assent  rose  from  the  whole  congregation. 
The  old  man  had  expressed  the  universal  feeling. 
Goring  was  touched  by  their  affection  for  himself — 
touched  by  the  readiness  of  a  hundred  families  to 
break  up  their  homes  and  leave  bejiind  them  the 
fruits  of  }'ears  of  industry,  but  a  small  part  of  which 
they  could  hope  to  take  with  them.  He  could  not 
say  that  they  were  not  right.  The  trees  of  Paradise 
were  but  exotics  in  such  a  land  as  he  had  discovered 
Ireland  to  be,  and  it  might  be  that  they  were  never 
to  grow  at  all,  and  that  the  opportunity  was  past. 
But  his  own  duty  was  no  less  plain  to  him. 

"  When  Ireland,"  he  said,  "  was  conquered  by 
Cromwell,  and  the  Irish  people,  like  the  Canaanites,  had 
forfeited  their  estates  by  their  cruelty  and  wickedness, 
the  land  was  distributed  among  the  soldiers  of  his 
army.  There  were  those  who  thought  that  it  ought  to 
be  portioned  out  according  to  merit.  But  the  noblest 
and  best  preferred  to  leave  the  choice  to  Providence, 
and  declared  that  they  would  rather  receive  by  lot 
from  the  Lord  a  patch  of  barren  mountain,  than  the 
finest  soil  in  Ireland  by  the  judgment  of  man.  What 
those  saintly  men  said  to  Cromwell  I  must  say  to 
you.  I  have  hesitated.  I  have  been  tempted  to 
return    to    my    profession    as    a    soldier,  but    my    lot 

21* 


324  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


has  been  assigned  me  in  this  country,  and  here  at 
my  post  I  must  stay  till  I  am  called  away.  On 
you  there  is  no  such  obligation.  You  came  hither 
with  me  at  my  own  invitation,  because  it  seemed 
to  you  that  there  was  work  for  us  to  do.  We  have 
fought  our  battle  together  not  unworthily.  We 
have  turned  the  bogs  into  green  fields.  We  have 
gathered  our  harvests  in  the  sea.  We  have  dug  our 
copper  out  of  the  hills,  and  in  worldly  goods  you  are  all 
richer  than  \\\\^\\  you  came  hither.  We  have  succeeded 
mainly  by  our  own  strength  in  restraining  the  lawless- 
ness which  till  we  came  prevailed  in  Bantry  Bay.  These 
are  not  signs  that  God  has  set  His  face  against  us.  If 
troubles  threaten  us  now,  they  may  be  no  more  than 
the  clouds  which  gather  over  our  mountains  and  pass 
awa}/  and  leave  them  as  they  were.  My  friends,  I 
cannot  go  with  you  to  the  New  World,  but  I  will  ask 
no  one  to  stay  with  me  here  against  his  will.  If  it  is 
your  conviction  that  you  can  live  and  work  to  a 
higher  purpose  there  than  here,  then  go.  It  will 
be  your  duty  to  go.  If  }^ou  prefer  to  return  to 
England,  I  undertook  when  you  joined  me  that  if, 
after  trial,  you  were  dissatisfied  with  your  Irish  home, 
I  would  send  you  back  at  my  own  cost.  I  thank 
you  for  the  affection  which  )'ou  ]ia\-e  expressed  to 
myself.  I  should  ill  deserve  your  confidence  if  I  was 
less  frank  with  you  than  you  have  been  with  me. 
Only  this  I  will  say.  Decide  nothing  in  haste.  War 
with  France  has  broken  out,  and  there  is  danger  here. 
If  I  know  you,  you  will  net  choose  this  particular 
moment  to  leave  me." 

Gravely  the  old  man  replied.  '*  It  may  be,  sir,  as 
you  say.  We  must  weigh  this  matter  before  we  act. 
We  must  not  tempt  the  Lord  by  following  blindly  our 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  325 

carnal  judgment.  But  how  know  we,  sir,  handled  as 
wc  have  been,  that  if  we  draw  the  sword  in  defence 
of  the  Government  our  service  will  be  well  re- 
ceived? In  17 1 5,  when  Scotland  rose,  there  was 
danger  of  invasion  in  this  country.  The  British 
Army  had  been  removed,  and  Ireland  was  un- 
defended. Our  brethren  in  Ulster  took  arms.  They 
brought  thirty  thousand  volunteers  into  the  field, 
equipped  and  officered  by  themselves,  and  what  was 
their  reward  ?  Their  leaders  were  threatened  with 
prosecution,  as  being  disqualified  from  holding  com- 
missions under  the  statute  !  " 

"  You  remember  rightly,"  said  Colonel  Goring. 
"  It  was  as  you  say,  and  shame  on  those  who  made 
so  unworthy  a  return  for  our  brethren's  patriotism  ! 
But  remember  also  what  came  of  it.  The  Parliament 
brushed  away  those  legal  cobwebs.  A  resolution  was 
passed  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  anyone  who 
molested  those  loyal  men  for  the  service  which  they 
had  done  was  an  enemy  to  his  country,  and  the  result 
vv-as  the  partial  Toleration  Act,  which  was  carried  in 
spite  of  the  Bishops'  resistance.  Of  this  Act,  if  we  are 
patient,  we  shall  surely  be  allowed  the  benefit.  The 
Primate's  charge  against  us  is  that  we  are  Re- 
publicans and  Anarchists,  and  bear  no  good  will  to 
our  King  and  constitution.  I  shall  be  sorry — I  shall 
be  sorry,  if  we  let  ourselves  be  provoked  by  injustice 
into  giving  him  an  excuse  for  his  accusations.  But 
you  must  judge  for  yourselves.  Whether  you  go  or 
stay,  I. remain." 

The  meeting  broke  up.  It  was  agreed  that,  unless 
they  were  interfered  with  by  force,  they  would  wait 
six  months  before  coming  to  a  final  resolution. 

The    intention    of  fortifying   the    Island   created  a 


326  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

stroni^  impression.  If  it  was  carried  out,  the  difficul- 
ties with  the  people  would  be  at  an  end.  But  they 
distrusted  the  promises  of  the  Government,  and 
could  not  fully  believe  in  its  sincerity  till  the  work 
was  done  or  was  in  progress.  They  resented  the  in- 
dignity with  which  they  had  been  treated,  and 
nothing  would  satisfy  them  short  of  a  full  concession 
of  their  rights.  They  dissolved  into  groups  as  they 
left  the  chapel,  and  dispersed  in  scattered  parties  to 
their  homes.  Some,  whose  severe  faces  were  lined 
with  the  temper  of  the  Cameronians,  thought  that  no 
good  could  come  to  a  country  which  had  not  shaken 
off  the  mother  Iniquity  of  Episcopalianism.  To 
them  a  Bishop,  whether  Reformed  or  Catholic,  was  a 
minister  of  Antichrist,  the  living  incarnation  of 
Papistical  enormities.  With  the  second-sight  of  intense 
religious  earnestness,  they  perceived  that  as  long  as  a 
Primate  of  the  Church  was  the  first  person  in  the 
Executive  Government,  between  him  and  them  there 
would  be  always  enmity.  They  had  inherited  their 
principles  from  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
were  not  to  be  moved  from  them.  Others  were 
humanly  anxious  for  the  education  of  their  children, 
were  sorry  to  think  of  leaving  the  colony,  but  were 
unable  to  see  how  they  could  remain.  Others  again, 
the  }'ounger  ones,  bred  in  the  rough  coast  ^^'ork  of  the 
South  of  England,  had  enjo\'ed  the  adventurous  life 
of  the  smuggler  hunting,  and  were  well  contented  as 
long  as  they  could  make  a  comfortable  living.  They 
regarded  the  Irish  as  a  set  of  scarceh-  human  savages, 
and  anyone  of  themselves  as  a  match  for  a  dozen  of 
them.  From  among  these  Goring  had  chiefly  taken 
his  companions  on  his  expeditions,  and  they  felt  a  com- 
radeship with  him  which  they  were  unwilling  to  break. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV.  327 

Again  in  some  there  was  a  more  tender  feeling.  A 
woman  caught  his  hand  as  she  left  the  chapel,  and 
said,  with  Ruth  :  "  Whither  thou  goest  I  will  go,  and 
where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge.  Thy  people  shall  be 
my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God.  Where  thou  diest 
I  will  die,  and  there  will  I  be  buried.  The  Lord  do 
so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  aught  but  death  part  thee 
and  me." 

In  Fitzherbert,  the  scene  which  he  had  witnessed 
created  mere  astonishment.  He  had  heard  much  of 
Dissenters.  He  had  been  present  at  some  of  their 
meetings.  The  newspapers  had  been  full  of  stories 
of  W^esley's  gatherings  in  London,  where  hysterical 
women  fell  into  fits  as  if  possessed  by  Satan,  and  Satan 
was  cast  out  by  exorcisms.  He  had  come  to  a  con- 
clusion that,  whatever  he  might  have  been  in  an  earlier 
generation,  the  modern  Nonconformist  was  a  vain, 
ijnorant,  fanatical,  and  not  always  honest  being, 
whom  it  was  unwise  to  persecute,  because  he  was  too 
silly  to  be  dangerous,  but  whose  actions  and  opinions 
were  beneath  the  notice  of  serious  men.  He  had 
found  himself  at  Dunboy  in  the  pre;ence  of  a  set  of 
persons  whose  professed  convictions  had  made  them 
into  strong  resolute  men  of  powerful  character.  The 
very  phrases  which  he  had  thought  presumptuous  and 
silly,  of  "  taking  counsel  with  God,"  "  God's  purpose 
with  them,"  and  such  like,  had  evidently  a  real 
meaning ;  and  plain  seamen,  mechanics  and  farmers, 
as  they  were,  they  had  an  inflexibility  of  purpose, 
and  an  indifference  to  personal  gain  and  advantage, 
which  made  them  exceptions  to  every  form  of  human 
being  whom  he  had  hitherto  fallen  in  with. 

"  The  English  Government,"  he  said  to  Goring, 
"  has    been    shrewder   than    I  gave  it   credit  for.     If 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 


Cromwell  left  Ireland  covered  over  with  such  com- 
munities as  yours,  which  I  suppose  he  did,  the 
Viceroys,  and  Peers,  and  Bishops,  who  were  set  to 
govern  with  the  modern  commercial  code,  would  have 
had  an  uneasy  time  of  it. 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Month  after  month  went  by,  and  Fitzherbert  was 
^till  a  guest  at  his  cousin's  house.  He  was  occupied 
partly  in  studying  the  ways  of  the  colony,  partly  in 
examining  the  old  stones  and  circles,  and  monuments 
of  the  ancient  race,  which  are  strewed  about  the 
m.ountains  and  valleys.  Winter  turned  to  Spring,  and 
Spring  to  early  Summer,  and  nothing  more  occurred 
to  disturb  the  quiet  of  the  settlement.  The  ill-wind 
w^hich  had  risen  among  the  Catholic  population  died 
away  again.  There  were  rumours  of  moonlight 
meetings,  like  that  which  Goring  had  witnessed  at 
the  Pocket,  of  the  coming  of  the  French,  and  of  a 
contemplated  general  insurrection.  But  stories  of 
this  kind  were  always  current  in  the  South  of  Ireland. 
Loose  powder  lay  about  everywhere,  but  it  was  damp, 
and  required  fire  to  kindle  it  ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
French  \\-ar  the  signs  of  active  disturbance  were 
lighter  than  usual.  The  registration  question  lingered 
on.  Goring  sent  in  his  appeal  to  the  Courts  in 
Dublin.  The  Courts  refeired  him  back  to  the  Quarter 
Sessions  in  his  own  county.  The  iVIagistrates 
waited  for  instructions  from  the  Primate,  being  unable 
to  decide  whether  the  tenets  of  the  new  sect  entitled 
them  to  the  benefit  of  the  Act  or  not,  and  the 
Primate's  direction  was  to  wait  till  the  m.atter  could 
be  more  fully  considered.  But  there  was  no  fresh 
Inhibition.     And    as    long    as   the   suspense    lasted, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  329 

Goring  assumed  that  the  judgment  must  be 
eventually  in  his  favour,  and  acted  as  if  it  had  been 
ah'eady  given. 

News  were  heard  occasionally  of  Morty  Sullivan. 
He  had  been  the  terror  of  the  Bahama  Channel.  He 
had  made  an  insurrection  among  the  Irish  convicts  at 
Montserrat,  and  had  gorged  himself  and  his  crew 
with  plunder.  When  last  heard  of,  he  was  lying 
concealed  somewhere  among  the  Spanish  Islands ; 
but  a  couple  of  frigates  had  been  sent  in  search  of 
him,  and  it  was  thought  that  he  could  not  long 
escape.  Meanwhile,  the  coasts  of  Cork  were  less 
disturbed  than  they  had  been.  The  Swansea  vessels 
came  back  again  for  the  copper  ore,  and  the  mining 
work  went  on  briskly  again.  The  chief  disappoint- 
ment was  that  General  Vavasour  had  not  appeared  to 
survey  Bere  Island.  He  was  often  coming,  but 
business  of  some  kind  or  another  had  detained  him  ; 
and  Goring's  heart  had  begun  to  misgive  him,  that 
the  Speaker's  promises  were  after  all  no  more  than 
vapour,  when,  one  afternoon  in  June,  a  revenue  cutter 
came  in  from  the  sea,  and  brought  up  in  the  basin  in 
front  of  Dunboy.  A  boat  came  on  shore  from  her, 
and  the  long-expected  officer  had  arrived. 

General  Vavasour  was  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  rising  officers  in  the  English  Service.  He  was  a 
person  of  the  most  varied  accomplishments,  and,  as 
often  happens,  he  valued  himself  highest  for  his 
knowledge  of  subjects  on  which  he  was  no  more  than 
amateur,  and  was  modestly  unconscious  of  his  merits 
where  those  merits  were  indisputable.  As  a  scientific 
engineer  he  eclipsed  all  his  contemporaries,  but  his 
pride  was  in  the  discoveries  which  he  believed  him- 
self to  have  made  in  the  history  of  the  ancient  Irish. 


330  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

Instead  of  a  nation  of  quarrelsome  septs,  perpetually 
murdering  each  other,  he  had  found  them  to  be  a 
profoundly  interesting  people,  who  had  come  to 
Europe  from  the  East,  bringing  with  them  the  creed 
of  the  Persian  Magi.  The  Druids  were  Priests 
of  the  Sun.  Their  ritual  was  a  symbol  of  the  ancient 
astronomy,  and  the  Round  Towers  were  their 
Temples.  He  had  studied  the  Druidical  monuments 
in  other  parts  of  Europe.  He  had  examined 
Stonehenge  ;  he  had  examined  Abury  ;  he  had  ex- 
amined Carnac  in  Brittany,  and  they  all  told  him  the 
same  story.  He  had  made  drawings  of  the  tombs 
and  cromlechs  and  stone  circles  in  Ireland.  He  had 
taken  their  dimensions  and  magnetic  bearings,  and 
had  drawn  conclusions  which,  if  dubious  to  other 
people,  were  indisputable  to  himself.  He  illustrated 
his  inferences  from  surviving  traditionary  customs, 
whose  practice  had  survived  the  knowledge  of  their 
meaning,  and  he  had  devoted  his  leisure  moments  to 
the  investigation  of  these  subjects,  with  the  en- 
thusiasm of  an  antiquary  and  the  inspiration  of  a 
poet. 

"  It  admits  of  no  doubt  whatever,"  he  would  say. 
''  Those  old  legends  of  the  Tuatha  de  Danans  may 
be  dreams,  but  the  imagery  of  dreams  is  always 
drawn  from  reality.  The  Irish  language  is  iden- 
tical in  structure  with  the  Persian  of  the  Zendavesta. 
The  traditions  run  on  the  same  lines.  The  name  of 
Druid,  which  foolish  persons  have  connected  with 
Oak  Groves,  and  supposed  to  be  Greek,  is  as  little 
Greek  as  it  is  Red  Indian.  It  is  the  Persian 
Draoidh,  the  wise  man  of  the  Plast.  The  bonfire 
which  the  Gal  way  or  the  Killarney  peasant  passes 
his     children    through    on     St.   John's     Eve,    is  the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  331 

fire  of  Moloch,  which  was  denounced  by  the 
Jewish  prophets.  Tlie  Round  Towers  were  Bel 
Tines  built  after  the  story  of  the  Tower  of  Babel, 
when  the  sons  of  the  survivors  of  the  Deluge  built 
their  Temple  to  the  visible  Gods  in  the  sky." 

Vavasours  acquaintances  generally  took  flight 
when  he  brought  out  his  hobby.  The  Speaker 
especially  dreaded  the  sight  of  the  beast.  Fitz- 
herbert,  however,  who  knew  him  well,  tempted  him 
to  mount  on  all  occasions ;  professing  always  the 
deepest  interest,  and  the  greatest  willingness  to 
believe  till  some  one  equally  learned  proved  exactly 
the  opposite. 

"  No  one  can  prove  the  opposite,"  Vavasour  would 
say,  *'  for,  look  you,  the  Tower  of  Babel  was  the  first 
Temple  ever  built.  Babel  was  Bel,  Belus,  or  the  Sun, 
and  the  symbol  of  him  was  the  Bull,  the  Minotaur, 
the  Apis  of  Egypt,  the  Golden  Calf  of  Aaron,  in 
the  feminine,  the  heifer  Baal,  the  cowfaced  Juno,  the 
transformed  lo.  Jupiter  when  he  carried  off  Europa 
took  the  same  form.  And  why  this  symbol  ?  Because 
the  Festival  of  the  Sun  was  held  at  the  Vernal 
Equinox,  and  five  thousand  years  ago  the  Sun 
crossed  the  line  six  weeks  later  than  it  does  now, 
exactly  at  the  time  when  he  entered  the  Constel- 
lation Taurus.  We  have  thus  the  date  fixed  for  us 
of  the  earliest  of  all  religions.  It  was  first  pure. 
It  then  became  Idolatrous,  and  mankind  were 
puni-shed  by  the  confusion  of  tongues,  and  by  a 
miraculous  dispersion.  The  Celtic  branch  was  carried 
westward,  and  was  deposited  in  Spain,  and  France, 
and  the  British  Isles.  They  brought  their  creed  and 
their  knowledge  along  with  them,  and  their  monu- 
ments still  survive  among  us." 


332  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


Fitzhcrbcrt  would  listen  reverentially,  only 
dropping  here  and  there  some  uncomfortable 
objection,  which  would  be  imperiously  dismissed. 
My  Uncle  Toby  ventured  once  to  reply  to  a  dis- 
quisition of  Mr.  Shandy's  :  "  My  dear  brother,  what 
has  a  man  who  believes  in  God  to  do  with  all  this  ?  " 
Fitzherbert,  while  admitting  the  possible  truth  of 
Vavasour's  theories,  dared  on  a  single  occasion  to  ask 
what  all  that  had  to  do  with  Ireland  ?  But  he  never 
repeated  his  question  ? 

"  My  dear  friend,"  Vavasour  answered,  "  it  has 
everything  to  do  with  it.  You  observe,  that  as  the 
Bull  was  the  symbol  of  the  Sun,  so  in  the  same 
theology  the  Serpent  was  the  symbol  of  intellect. 
The  serpent  was  the  tempter  in  Paradise,  who  led 
our  parents  to  the  fatal  Tree  of  Knowledge.  The 
Serpent  was  the  guardian  of  the  golden  apples.  The 
Serpent  lay  wreathed  under  the  altar  of  Pallas  at 
Athens.  The  Serpent  in  Sanchoniathon  was  the 
type  of  Eternity.  In  shedding  its  skin  it  was  sup- 
posed to  renew  its  life  for  ever,  and  to  be  naturally 
immortal.  Thus  when  we  read  that  St.  Patrick 
banished  the  snakes  out  of  Ireland,  we  are  merely 
reading  an  allegory  ;  the  Christian  Apostle  was 
making  an  end  of  the  ancient  creed." 

After  so  luminous  a  reply,  Fitzherbert  would  pro- 
fess himself  convinced,  and  Vavasour  would  flow  on 
unrestrained. 

Such  was  the  officer  who  had  come  from  Cork,  as 
was  supposed,  to  draw  the  plans  for  the  Fort  on  the 
Island,  and  it  was  with  no  little  satisfaction  that  his 
arrival  was  greeted  at  Dunboy.  Goring  thought 
that  he  was  now  to  be  relieved  of  the  strain  of 
anxiety  and  expectation.     Fitzherbert  was  delighted 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF   DUNBOY.  533 

to  meet  again  a  companion  whose  speculations 
amused  him,  and  whom  he  respected  for  his  accom- 
phshments.  They  met  their  visitor  at  the  landing 
place.  "  What  an  exquisite  spot  !  "  the  General  said 
as  he  stepped  ashore.  "  Well  for  mankind  that,  amidst 
the  vulgar  occupations  of  common  life,  there  are  still 
places  where  it  is  possible  to  be  reasonably  happy. 
How  can  I  sufficiently  congratulate  you.  Colonel 
Goring,  that  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  these  has 
fallen  to  your  lot  ?  " 

Charming  as  land  and  sea  appeared  in  the  summer 
sunshine,  such  an  enthusiastic  exclamation  scarcely 
met  the  condition  of  Colonel  Goring's  feelings.  He 
missed  some  allusion  to  the  matter  of  which  his  mind 
was  full.  He  said  everything  that  was  proper, 
however,  observing  merely  that  he  hoped  the 
General's  visit  would  enable  him  to  enjoy  their 
blesssings  in  more  tranquillity." 

''  I  trust  it  will  be  so,"  the  General  said.  "  All  the 
knowledge  which  I  possess  will  be  at  your  service. 
I  am  sorry  only  that  my  stay  can  be  but  brief,  too 
brief  to  exhaust  a  hundredth  part  of  the  interest 
which  attaches  to  so  remarkable  a  neighbourhood, 
I  must  leave  you  in  three  days  ;  but  wq  will  turn 
to  profit  every  hour  of  them.  We  will  begin  to- 
morrow— we  will  begin  this  instant,  if  you  are  dis- 
engaged. To  me  life  is  only  precious  for  what  it 
enables  me  to  learn  and  to  do." 

''  You  are  a  most  zealous  officer,  General  Vavasour," 
Goring  answered.  "  Would  that  more  were  like  you 
in  the  Service  !  We  have  still  some  hours  of  daylight 
and,  if  you  really  wish  it,  a  boat  shall  take  us  at  once 
to  the  Island." 

The  General   looked    puzzled.     "  The   Island ! "  he 


334  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


said.  "  Is  it  possible  that  there,  too,  fresh  treasures 
have  been  found  ?     I  had  not  heard  of  this." 

"  I  beheve  that  an  old  gun  has  been  turned  up 
on  the  site  of  Carew's  battery,"  said  Goring.  "  I 
am  sorry,  however,  that  I  must  confess  my  care- 
lessness. I  have  not  even  looked  at  it.  The 
position  you  will  see  is  unsuited  for  a  modern 
fort  which  is  to  command   the  anchorage." 

"  Carew's  cannon  !  "  replied  the  General.  "  You  do 
well  to  be  indifferent  to  such  worthless  rubbish. 
But  the  fort — I  know  nothing  of  a  fort.  Oh  !  yes  ; 
by-the-bye,  yes.  When  I  told  the  Governor  of  Cork 
that  I  was  coming  here,  he  did  ask  me  to  take  a  glance 
at  the  Island,  and  see  whether  in  case  of  necessity  a 
gun  or  two  could  be  mounted  there.  Any  time  will 
do  for  that,  however.  I  must  first  see  what  you  have 
to  show  me  up  these  valleys   of  yours." 

To  Goring,  whose  thoughts  and  hopes  were  fastened 
on  the  prospect  which  the  Speaker  had  held  out  to 
him,  General  Vavasour's  words  were  unintelligible. 
What  else  could  there  be  in  the  neighbo,urhood  which 
the  General  was  so  anxious  about  ?  After  a  moment's 
reflection,  he  concluded  that  the  reputation  of  his 
Protestant  garrison  had  reached  the  General's  ears, 
and  that  he  wanted  to  see  what  the  men  were  like 
that  he  had  about  him.  Most  of  his  people,  he  said, 
were  away  at  the  mines,  and  the  boats  were  on  the 
Bay  fishing  ;  but  they  would  walk  through  the  village 
and  see  their  families,  and  there  should  be  a  muster 
under  arms  the  next  morning. 

"  Gad  !  Goring,"  said  the  General,  *'  they  told  me 
you  were  half  mad  with  your  Methodists,  or  whatever 
they  are — a  very  irregular  and  disorderly  set  of 
rogues,  from  what  I  have  heard  of  them.    Sorry  I  am 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  335 

that  a  fine  fellow  like  you  should  have  taken  up 
with  such  a  pack.  I  hope  they  have  done  no  mischief 
here.  The  Puritan  scoundrels  in  England  tore  the 
Abbeys  down,  and  spoilt  half  the  churches,  Vandals 
that  they  were.  I  have  known  a  cromlech  in  Cornwall 
split  to  pieces  to  mend  a  road.  If  your  fellows  have 
been  at  the  same  work  here,  I  will  never  forgive 
them." 

"  General  Vavasour,"  Goring  coldy  replied,  "  I  am 
gratified  that  you  have  done  me  the  honour  cf 
visiting  Dunboy.  Nothing  shall  be  wanting  on  my 
part  to  make  your  stay  agreeable  to  you.  I  confess, 
however,  that  I  am  somewhat  at  a  loss.  The  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  Lord  Shannon,  I  believe 
I  must  now  call  him,  led  me  to  expect  your  assistance 
in  providing  for  the  defence  of  the  harbour  here.  I 
supposed  your  arrival  to  be  connected  with  this  under- 
taking. I  regret  my  mistake  if  I  have  made  one. 
As  to  my  tenants  and  workmen,  they  are  brave  and 
loyal  subjects.  They  have  done  good  service  to  the 
State,  and  I  hope  will  do  it  again." 

Fitzherbert,  who  had  been  struggling  with  his 
laughter,  vexed  at  heart  though  he  was  at  the  distress 
which  he  knew  that  his  friend  must  be  feeling,  struck 
in  to  prevent  further  cross  purposes. 

"  You  do  not  know  the  treasures  you  are  possessed 
of,  Goring,"  he  said.  *'  Our  little  troubles  down  here 
are  but  the  accidents  of  the  moment.  The  General  is 
occupied  with  the  secrets  of  Irish  national  history,  of 
which  he  believes  the  key  to  be  in  these  mountains." 

"  Of  course,"  cried  the  General,  his  eyes  beaming  at 
once  with  pleasure  and  good  humour.  ''  Have  you 
not  within  reach  of  an  easy  day's  expedition  the 
precious  sandstone  slab,  which,  if  the  engravings  do 


336  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

not  lie,  is  an  ancient  snake  ring.  Have  you  not  a  fort 
more  precious  than  any  which  we  could  build,  the 
most  perfect  now  left  in  Northern  Europe,  which  I 
expect  will  settle  the  question  about  Stonehenge  ?  " 

"  I  believe  there  are  such  things,  sir,"  Gordon 
replied.  "  I  am  a  poor  ignorant  soldier  and  know 
nothing  of  them,  but  all  I  have  is  at  your  disposition. 
But  we  are  at  my  house,  excuse  me  for  a  few  minutes. 
I  must  see  that  your  rooms  are  ready  for  you." 

His  hopes  had  been  built  upon  the  promised 
garrison.  They  all  seemed  blown  to  the  winds,  and 
he  required  to  be  alone  with  his  wife  to  recover 
himself. 

Fitzherbert  meanwhile  explained  to  the  General 
how  matters  stood,  and  Vavasour,  who  was  really  a 
kind-hearted  man,  and  was  a  keen  and  shrewd  officer 
when  the  antiquarian  fit  was  off  him,  recognised  at 
once  how  deep  must  be  their  friend's  disappointment, 
and  how  real  the  dangers  against  which  he  had  been 
contending  single-handed,  how  admirable  and  patriotic 
his  conduct  had  been,  and  how  idly  and  carelessly  he 
had  been  treated.  It  was  a  typical  instance  of  Irish 
administration.  Lord  Shannon  had  meant  what  he 
said.  A  warning  had  reached  him  just  at  the  time  of 
a  probable  descent  on  the  coast  of  Cork  or  Kerry, 
and  he  had  sincerely  intended  that  the  harbour  at 
Berehaven  should  be  put  in  a  state  of  defence.  But 
the  alarm  passed  off  The  French  seemed  to  be  occu- 
pied elsewhere.  When  Goring  was  in  Dublin,  Shannon 
was  on  doubtful  terms  with  the  Primate.  But  they 
had  made  up  their  differences.  He  had  secured  his 
Earldom  and  his  pension,  and  preferred  to  let  a 
subject  drop  which  might  have  led  to  fresh  questions 
between  them.     He  sincerely  wished  Goring  well,  but 


THE   TWO  CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  337 

he  believed  he  was  no  longer  in  danger.  Thus  time 
had  run  on,  and  it  was  not  till  Vavasour  had  applied 
for  a  short  summer's  leave  of  absence,  and  had  men- 
tioned that  he  was  going  in  search  of  antiquities  to 
Dunboy,  that  he  was  told  to  take  a  look  at  Bere 
Island,  and  see  whether  anything  could  be  made  of  it 
in  case  of  necessity. 

He  was  sorry  on  all  accounts,  sorry  especially  for 
the  light  tone  in  which  he  had  himself  spoken,  and 
when  they  met  again  at  dinner  he  was  the  soldier, 
the  engineer,  the  brother  officer.  The  Fire  Towers 
and  the  Tuatha  de  Danans  were  forgotten  ;  the  French, 
the  Whiteboys,  the  possible  insurrection,  and  the 
means  of  dealing  with  it,  appeared  to  be  the  oily 
subjects  with  which  his  mind  was  occupied.  He 
cross-questioned  Goring  about  the  smugglers,  heard 
in  detail  the  story  of  the  fight  at  Glengariff,  applauded 
the  courage  of  the  colonists,  and  applauded  Goring 
for  having  introduced  so  admirable  a  set  of  men.  He 
forgave  even  their  religious  peculiarities.  A  creed 
which  made  them  brave  and  stubborn,  could  not  be 
far  out  of  the  square,  and  when  he  was  assured  that 
they  were  educated  and  intelligent  and  would  never 
think  of  injuring  anything  that  was  old  and  curious, 
it  almost  seemed  as  if  he  was  ready  to  become  a 
convert  himself 

It  was  agreed  before  they  parted  for  the  night 
that  the  next  day  should  be  devoted  to  an  elaborate 
survey  of  the  Island,  and  the  General  undertook  to 
report  on  the  necessity  of  doing  something  or  other 
to  defend  the  harbour,  whether  the  method  before 
suggested  should  appear  feasible  or  not. 

Thus  he  almost  succeeded  in  driving  away  the  un- 
pleasant impression  which   he  had  created  on  his  first 

22 


338  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

arrival,  and  restoring  Goring's  hopes  and  spirits. 
i\lmost,  but  not  entirely,  for  the  shock  had  been  deep, 
and  he  knew  too  well  that  his  position  was  at  stake. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

Morning    came  blue  and  cloudless.     The    sun  rose 
over    Hungry    Hill,  flashing    on    the    thousand    tiny 
waves    which    rippled    the    grey    waters    of    Bantry 
Bay.       The    boats    had    come  in  from  the  sea,  and 
the  miners  and   farmers  off  the  Hill  ;  and  fishermen 
and    landsmen    mustered     under    arms    for    General 
Vavasour's  inspection.       There  were  a  hundred  and 
twenty    of   them,  old    and    young,  and    the  General 
found  himc.elf    astonished  into  real  admiration.       In 
this  army  of  Sv/addlers,  he  saw  before  him  a  set  of 
men  whom    he    would    be    as    well  pleased  to  have 
behind  him  in  the  most  dangerous  service  he   could 
be  sent  upon,  as    he    would    have    liked    ill    to  find 
them  in  his  front.     After  a  few  e\'olutions  there  was 
firing  at    a    floating    target    to    show    the  quality  of 
the  shooting.       The  fishermen  took  their  boats  and 
made  a  sham  attack  on    the  Revenue  cutter,  which 
found    herself    unexpectedly    with    a    floating    mine 
under  her  side,  which  was  hanging  by  a  rope  from 
her    cable.     A    boat    race    followed,    and    when    the 
General  went  in  to  breakfast  on  fresh  caught  whiting 
v/hich  had  been  brought  in  at  daylight,  he  had  come 
to  a  conclusion  that  if  Cromwell's  Protestant  settle- 
ments had  all  resembled  the  colony  at  Dunboy,  less 
wisdom  had  been  shown  in  extinguishing  them  than 
he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  imagining. 

The  day,  as  had  been  arranged,  had  been  given  to 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DJNBOY.  339 

the  Island.  Sites  were  examined,  rocks  were  tested, 
and  measurements  were  accurately  taken.  The  water 
supply  question  was  gone  into.  Soundings  were 
taken  at  the  anchorage,  and  the  range  of  guns  calcu- 
lated. Once  launched  upon  the  business  of  the  pro- 
fession, the  General's  enthusiasm  warmed  to  the  work. 
He  was  not  contented  with  the  Island.  He  examined 
different  points  upon  the  mainland.  He  made  the 
men  row  him  to  Adrigoole,  to  see  whether  something 
could  be  made  of  that.  He  said  little,  but  he  sketched 
and  made  notes  incessantly,  and  his  silent  eagerness 
was  more  satisfactory,  a  great  deal,  than  a  profusion 
of  words  would  have  been.  The  morning-  foUowinsf 
was  spent  in  writing  a  report,  which  he  gave  Goring 
to  read  and  make  suggestions  on.  It  set  forth  how, 
without  difficulty,  any  French  cruiser  might  take 
possession  of  the  harbour,  with  the  most  dangerous 
effect  upon  the  population.  It  contained  a  plan  for 
the  defence  of  the  place,  and  advised  that  it  should  be 
carried  out  without  delay.  Knowing  the  habits  of 
Dublin  Castle,  he  said  that  his  despatch  should  be 
forwarded  to  the  English  authorities,  from  whom 
there  was  better  hope  of  attention. 

Two  days  out  of  the  three  which  the  General  could 
allow  himself,  having  been  thus  consumed,  the  least 
which  Goring  could  do  was  to  let  him  have  the  third 
to  himself,  mount  his  hobby,  and  go  in  search  of  the 
antiquities. 

General  Vavasour,  being  slightly  ashamed  of  his 
outburst  on  the  day  of  his  arrival,  had  felt  a  delicacy 
about  suggesting  it  himself  ;  but  when  Mrs.  Goring 
appealed  to  him  not  to  leave  Dunboy  without  giving 
herself  and  her  husband  the  benefit  of  his  unrivalled 
knowledge,  he  eagerly  consented. 

22-'' 


340  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

The  most  impd-tant  of  the  curiosities  were  in  a 
valley  some  mnles  distant.  The  greater  part  of  the 
way,  they  were  to  go  by  water.  Mrs.  Goring  joined 
the  party,  and  they  set  off  together  ;  cares  and 
anxieties  laid  aside  for  an  entire  day  of  amusement 
and  instruction.  The  sea  was  smooth  ;  the  Colonel's 
six-oared  gig  bore  them  rapidly  across  an  arm  of 
the  bay  ;  and  they  were  landed  at  the  mouth  of  a 
small  river,  from  which  point  they  were  to  walk. 
Summer  was  in  the  pride  of  its  beauty  ;  the  air  was 
scented  with  fresh-cut  hay  ;  the  wild  rose-bushes  were 
covered  with  blosssom,  and  the  hill  sides  were  pink 
with  foxgloves.  The  wet  bogs  shone  with  asphodel 
and  orchids  ;  and  the  large  blue  pinguicolas — loveliest 
of  all  the  wild  flowers  of  Ireland — luxuriated  in  the 
peat,  where  the  water  dripped  on  them  off  the 
rocks.  A  couple  of  boatmen  carried  the  luncheon- 
basket,  and  they  proceeded  for  a  mile  up  the  course 
of  the  stream,  till  they  came  to  a  broad  and  shallow 
valley,  full  of  rich  grass,  with  high  mountains  rising 
on  either  side.  To  enter  it,  they  had  to  pass  over  the 
projecting  shoulder  of  one  of  the  lower  hills,  on  the 
top  of  which  the  soil  had  been  long  washed  away. 
The  red  sandstone  was  spread  out  bare  and  flat,  and 
some  one  at  some  time  or  other  had  smoothed  and 
polished  a  few  square  yards  of  it.  On  this  he  had 
drawn  a  circle,  enclosing  it  with  a  line,  which  was 
crossed  and  doubled  as  if  to  represent  a  twisted  rope. 
Over  the  area,  inside  the  circumference,  w^ere  scattered 
a  number  of  rings  of  various  sizes,  deeply  cut  in  the 
stone,  with  central  holes  in  each,  and  an  occasional 
spot  on  the  edge  of  the  ring  itself ;  while  in  and  out 
among  these  circles  were  lines  and  strokes,  appearing 
to   mean    something,    from    the    regularity   of  their 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  341 

figures,  but  what  the  meaning  could  be,  there  was 
nothing  to  show.  This  was  their  first  object ;  and 
Vavasour  sprang  upon  his  prize,  as  a  hawk  upon  a 
partridge.  He  produced  an  engraving,  which  he 
compared,  point  by  point,  with  the  original,  and  then 
flung  it  away  in  disgust.  "  It  is  always  so,"  he  mut- 
tered. "  The  fools  start  with  an  idea,  and  then  draw 
their  own  notions,  and  not  what  they  see.  They 
made  me  belie\is  it  was  a  snake-ring,  with  which  it 
has  not  the  faintest  resemblance  ;  but  if  not  that — 
What  is  it,  and  who  made  it,  and  when  ?  " 

"  That  is  for  an  expert,  like  you,  to  explain,"  said 
Fitzherbert,  "  I  am  no  conjurer.  Somebody  has 
taken  a  great  deal  of  trouble  here  ;  but  whether  it 
was  a  fortune-teller,  or  dealer  in  charms  and  spells,  or 
whether  some  idle  hand  was  making  a  board  for  the 
shepherd  boys  to  play  games  upon,  I  cannot  pretend 
to  guess.  Where  there  are  a  thousand  possibilities, 
the  odds  are  heavy  against  conjecture." 

"  That  is  right,"  said  the  General,  "  never  guess, 
unless  you  know.  I  am  puzzled  myself.  The  marks 
are  not  what  I  expected." 

He  knelt  upon  the  rock,  counted  the  number  of 
rings,  measured  the  distance  of  one  from  the  other, 
and  of  each  from  the  centre,  then  examined  the  lines 
and  scratches.  I  see  what  it  may  be,"  he  said,  "  and 
though  it  disappoints  me  in  one  way,  it  may  settle  a 
curious  point  of  history.  But  there  ought  to  be  a  fort 
in  the  valley  close  by — Cahir  Askill,  I  believe  they 
call  it.  The  fort  and  the  stone  will,  surely,  be  in  some 
wa}/  connected,  and  one  will  help  us  to  understand 
the  other." 

Cahir  Askill  was,  in  fact,  not  a  quarter-of-a-mile 
from  the  engraved  stone,  and  lay  in  the  valley  below 


342  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


the  hill  on  which  they  were  standing.  Walking  for- 
Vv^arci  a  hundred  yards,  they  came  in  sight  of  a  circular 
fort,  as  it  was  called  ;  an  enclosure,  erected  in  the 
middle  of  an  open  meadow,  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
in  diameter,  and  surrounded  by  a  thick  wall,  con- 
structed so  solidly  that  two-thirds  of  it  were  still  in 
fair  condition.  The  stones  were  large,  and  the  more 
important  of  them  had  been  rudely  hewn.  There  was 
one  distinct  entrance  ;  and  signs  of  where  another 
might  have  been,  on  the  opposite  side  ;  while  on  the 
inner  side  of  the  wall  there  were  stone  staircases, 
leading  to  the  top  of  it;  and  underneath  each  of 
these  a  chamber,  large  enough  to  hold  ten  or  twelve 
men.  The  remainder  of  the  interior  area  was  entirely 
vacant,  no  trace  of  building  of  any  kind  being  visible 
in  any  part  of  it.  From  the  entrance  to  the  rocky 
side  of  the  valley,  the  distance  was  about  two  hun- 
dred yards,  the  space  intervening  being  covered  with 
rich  grass,  and  never,  apparently,  having  been  in  any 
other  condition. 

Tradition  describes  the  place  as  an  ancient  Danish 
fortress.  The  least  instructed  eye  could  perceive  that 
the  hollow  cellars  under  the  steps  were  meant  to  con- 
tain human  beings.  The  steps  themselves  gave  access 
to  the  top  of  the  walls,  and  the  walls  seemed  as  if 
they  must  have  been  meant  for  a  defence  of  some 
kind  ;  yet,  as  they  all  instantly  observed,  no  building 
could  have  been  contrived  less  capable  of  resisting  a 
serious  attack  ;  the  fortifications,  if  such  they  were, 
being  low,  and  exposed  on  all  sides,  while  within 
there  was  no  shelter  of  any  kind,  or  place  of  retreat, 
should  the  outer  lin^  be  carried.  The  Danes,  barba- 
rians though  they  might  be,  were  men  of  sense  ;  they 
knew  how  to  build   and   navigate   ships  ;  they  could 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  343 

twist  ropes  and  make  sail-cloth  ;  they  could  work  in 
metals  ;  they  had  built  sea-port  towns  in  Ireland,  and 
carried  on  trade.  It  was  not  conceivable  that  men  so 
generally  capable  would  have  made  a  fortress  on  so 
absurd  a  principle,  if  such  was  the  real  nature  of  it. 

Fitzherbert  waited  to  hear  what  the  great  authority 
would  say.  He  had  his  own  private  doubts  whether 
a  building  put  together  without  mortar,  and  so  loosely 
constructed,  would  have  survived  from  such  a  high 
antiquity.  Irish  legend,  he  conceived,  was  an  in- 
sufficient authority  on  such  a  subject.  Eight  hundred 
years  of  rain  and  frost  must  have  left  traces  of  de- 
composition. His  eye  told  him  that  the  wall  was 
made  of  stones  of  all  kinds,  soft  and  hard,  )'et  the 
softest  was  but  slightly  weather-worn  ;  but  he  held 
his  tongue,  till  Vavasour  should  deliver  himself 

Goring,  who  had  seen  the  place  before,  was  not  so 
prudent.  He  was  no  antiquarian.  But  he  had  sense 
to  see  plain  objects  and  draw  plain  conclusions  from 
them.  He  said  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  enclosure  was 
nothing  but  a  cattle  pound.  The  pasture  in  the  valley 
was  the  richest  in  the  neighbourhood.  Down  to  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  much  later,  in  disordered 
times,  the  Irish  chiefs  amused  themselves  with  driving 
each  other's  cows  at  night.  Here  was  a  fold  where 
the  herds  which  fed  on  these  hills  and  meadows  could 
be  gathered  in  at  sunset.  The  walls,  poor  as  they 
were,  would  suffice  to  keep  off  small  parties  of  thieves, 
and  a  handful  of  men  distributed  among  the  case- 
mates, from  which  they  could  spring  up  at  a  moment's 
notice,  would  be  sufficient  protection.  The  raids 
were  on  moonlight  nights,  and  as  the  ground  was 
open  all  round  an  attacking  party  would  be  seen 
approaching  by  the  sentinels  ;  and   further,  the  fort 


344 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


stood  at  a  spot  selected  carefully  so  as  to  be  out  of 
bow-shot  or  crossbow-shot  from  the  nearest  crags. 
In  short,  Goring's  opinion  was  that  they  were  look- 
ing at  a  monument  of  what  Ireland  had  been  when 
left  to  her  own  people,  before  English  authority  had 
begun  to  curb  the  lawless  tendencies  of  her  own 
children. 

The  General  listened  languidly.  With  one  side 
of  his  mind  he  recognised  that  Goring  was  possibly 
right.  But  he  had  formed  large  expectations  of  this 
Cahir  Askill.  It  had  been  described  to  him  as  the 
most  remarkable  of  all  surviving  Irish  remains.  It 
must  have  had  some  connection  with  the  flat  stone, 
and  the  flat  stone  could  have  had  nothing  to  do  with 
cattle  stealing.  Leaving  Goring  and  his  wife  beside 
the  luncheon  basket,  he  walked  round  the  building 
with  Fitzherbert,  examined  the  stones  for  inscriptions, 
of  which  he  found  none,  looked  carefully  at  the  peaks 
of  the  different  mountains  which  overhung  the  valley, 
and  took  their  bearings  with  compass  and  quadrant. 
It  happened  to  be  Midsummer  Day,  and  high  noon. 
Having  a  measuring  rod  with  him,  six  feet  long,  he 
fixed  it  vertically  in  the  centre  of  the  enclosure. 
"  Look  here,"  he  said,  and  he  pointed  to  the  shadow 
of  the  rod  upon  the  ground.  "  You  have  here  the 
earliest  observation  of  the  ancient  astronomers.  That 
stick  is  a  gnomon.  The  direction  and  length  of  the 
shadow  fixes  the  meridian  for  you.  To-day  the  sun 
is  at  its  highest  elevation  for  the  whole  year,  and  the 
shadow  is,  therefore,  the  shortest.  It  was  here  a  few 
minutes  ago,"  he  said,  pointing  to  a  scratch  he  had 
made  in  the  clay.  "  Now  you  see  where  it  is,  here. 
With  this  simple  instrument  the  ancients  fixed  tke 
time  of  the  solstice,  and  each  dav  the   exact   moment 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY,  345 

of  noon.  From  the  sun  they  passed  tc  the  moon  and 
the  stars,  and  the  science  of  astronomy  was  begun." 

Fitzherbert's  eyes  ghmmered.  He  could  not  guess 
what  was  coming,  but  he  congratulated  himself  on  his 
own  forbearance.  The  gnomon  must  be  leading  up 
to  the  fort,  but  by  what  extraordinary  route.  He 
did  venture  to  ask,  however,  whether  the  results  which 
it  gave  depended  on  its  situation,  and  whether  it 
would  not  have  yielded  the  same  results  if  it  had  been 
set  up  anywhere  else. 

"  I  admit  that  it  would,  most  sapient  Fellow  of 
Trinity.  But  now  observe  that  large  stone  on  the 
top  of  the  wall,  under  the  sun.  At  noon  the  sun  was 
exactly  over  it,  as  we  stand  here  at  the  centre.  Look 
the  other  way,  and  you  will  see  a  corresponding  stone 
under  the  North  Star.  Here  are  marks  definitely 
pointing  to  the  two  poles." 

"  And  what  then  ?  "   enquired  Fitzherbert,  eagerly. 

"  If  you  had  read  science  at  college,  as  you  ought  to 
have  done,  instead  of  wasting  your  time  upon  litera- 
ture, you  would  not  have  required  to  ask,  '  what  then  ?  ' 
Why  then,  finding  sun,  moon,  and  planets  moving 
about  among  the  stars,  finding  some  stars  rising  and 
setting,  others  revolving  about  a  point  above  the 
horizon,  and  the  single  North  Star  remaining  fixed  in 
its  place,  those  old  people,  being  men  of  lofty 
thoughts,  determined  to  discover  the  law  of  those 
erratic  bodies,  and  they  measured  their  movements 
by  watching  how  they  bore  towards  fixed  objects, 
which  were  always  the  same.  The  Egyptians  and 
Babylonians  erected  towers  and  walls  for  the  purpose. 
Stonehenge  had  the  same  design.  At  sunrise  on  Mid- 
summer morning  the  sun's  rays  touch  the  altar  stone 
there.     But  the  Druids   of  this   island  found   instru- 


346  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

ments  ready  made  for  them  in  their  own  mountains  ; 
and,  unless  my  judgment  deceives  me,  we  are  in  the 
ancient  lecture  hall,  where  wise  men  conveyed  by 
mouth  the  traditional  lore  of  the  stars  which  their 
fathers  had  brought  with  them,  and  illustrated  their 
teaching  directly  from  the  objects  themselves.  Likely 
enough,  in  baser  ages,  the  place  may  have  been  turned 
to  such  profane  uses  as  your  friend  Goring  there 
suggested.  We  have  seen  churches  used  in  the  same 
manner.  But  observe  yonder  mountain's  peak  in  the 
south  !  It  is  exactly  on  the  meridian  over  the  stone 
on  the  wall.  Every  star  to  the  south  of  us  passes 
over  that  peak  at  its  highest  point  of  ascension  in  its 
diurnal  revolution,  and  the  changes  of  the  star's 
position  can  be  measured  against  it  in  different  parts 
of  the  year.  Then  see  that  low  hollow  in  the  north- 
east. The  sun  rose  there  this  morning.  A  week 
hence  it  will  be  behind  the  hill,  and  will  be  seen  there 
no  more  for  another  year.  And  again,  look  at  that 
group  of  mountains  in  the  west.  On  fine  nights  you 
would  see  Venus  receding  and  then  advancing  among 
the  peaks,  and  no  better  instrument  could  be  made  to 
explain  the  planetary  movements.  Instruction  in  a 
lecture  room  with  designs  and  figures  only  touches 
the  mind  frOm  outside,  and  does  not  touch  the  imagi- 
nation at  all.  Bring  the  pupil  into  these  solitudes, 
show  him  the  objects  themselves  as  they  travel  on  in 
their  celestial  courses,  and  instead  of  barren  mathe- 
matics the  entire  soul  receives  a  lesson  of  awe  and 
adoration.  His  nature  expands,  as  he  comprehends 
the  magnificence  of  the  glorious  system,  of  which, 
atom  though  he  be,  he  is  himself  a  living  part !  " 

"  Brilliant !  "  said  Fitzherbert,  "  if  your  speculations 
had  only  a  few  facts  in  the  middle   of  them.     So   far 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  347 

as  I  can  see  you  have  only  a  couple  of  stones  which 
happen  to  stand  north  and  south.  But  supposing 
those  old  Druid  ruffians  did  really  construct  this 
place,  if  all  tales  are  true  they  taught  other  lessons 
besides  star-gazing.  If  the  spot  where  we  stand 
could  speak,  it  could,  perhaps,  tell  us  that  it  had  seen 
in  the  middle  of  it  one  of  those  great  wicker  piles 
with  miserable  creatures  bound  in  the  middle  of  it, 
some  old  arch-priest,  in  a  white  dress,  bringing  a 
torch  and  setting  a  light  to  it,  and  kings  and  chiefs 
and  other  charming  ancestors  of  ours  standing  round 
the  wails  and  looking  on  and  listening  to  the  shrieks. 
After  all,  it  is  not  unlike  the  Ouemadero  at  Seville. 
But  if  the  Druids  put  all  those  fine  ideas  you  speak  of 
into  the  people,  how  came  they  to  be  such  a  set  of 
savages  as  their  own  bards  say  they  were  ?  " 

"  They  might  have  been  worse,"  said  Vavasour. 
"  For  that  matter  they  are  savage  enough  still ;  and 
our  Bishops  have  improved  them  no  more  than  the 
Druids.  However  it  be,  I  have  given  you  a  theory  about 
the  place.  But  I  quite  admit  that  Goring's  is  a  simpler 
one,  and  if  you  don't  like  mine  you  may  take  his. 
Antiquaries  are  fine  architects  of  castles  in  the  air ; 
and,  as  to  me,  I  am  only  mad  Nor-Nor-West,  like 
Hamlet.  I  have  discoursed  after  the  fashion  of  my 
brother  enthusiasts,  and  vrith  as  much  reason  as  a 
good  many  of  them.  We  will  stop  at  the  stone  again 
as  we  go  back,  and  I  will  finish  my  parable.  Mean- 
while our  host  and  his  lady  call  us  to  luncheon  yonder 
in  the  shade." 

The  afternoon  was  hot.  A  pleasant  patch  of  grass 
had  been  found  by  the  side  of  the  stream  under  the 
shelter  of  a  rock,  and  once  established  there  the  party 
was  in   no  haste  to  move.     These  luncheons   amidst 


348  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


moors  and  mountains  are  among  the  bright  incidents 
of  our  lives.  Goring  duly  hoped  that  his  distinguished 
guest  had  found  something  to  interest  him.  Fitz- 
herbert  gravely  repeated  the  astronomical  theory  ; 
which  they  were  permitted  to  laugh  at,  Vavasour 
laughing  as  loud  as  either  of  them.  With  much  that 
was  said  and  written  by  the  learned  about  Celtic 
antiquities  he  said  that  he  agreed,  and  had  himself 
contributed  speculations  of  his  own  in  the  same 
direction  ;  but  when  men  became  enthusiastic  they 
drew  large  inferences  fromi  small  foundations,  and 
had  talked  wonderful  nonsense  about  the  curiosities 
in  this  valley.  He  complimented  Goring  on  his  own 
interpretation,  which  threw  useful  light  on  compara- 
tively recent  times,  wished  he  could  have  him  always 
by  his  side  when  he  went  on  similar  expeditions,  to 
cool  his  imagination  ;  and  admitted  that  there  was 
nothing  on  the  peninsula  so  interesting  as  Goring's 
Protestant  colonists.  He  was  comforted,  if  he  needed 
comfort,  by  one  genuine  relic,  within  sight,  on  the  hill- 
side, a  rude  circle  of  thirteen  upright  stones,  a  sort  of 
miniature  Stonehenge.  This  was  certainly  not  a 
cattle  pound,  and  imagination  might  be  as  busy  as  it 
pleased. 

/.  s  they  moved  homewards  they  passed  the  flat 
stone  again  with  the  mysterious  hieroglyphics.  "  I 
will  not  dogmatize,"  Vavasour  said,  "  for  Fitzherbert 
thereto  make  jokes  at  my  expense,  but  I  will  give  you 

what  Dr.  S would  say  about  it  if  he  was  lecturing 

at  the Academy.     He  would  assume  himself  to 

have  proved  that  the  fort  was  an  observatory.  Coming 
to  this  stone  he  would  say  it  was  a  record  of  the 
observations  taken  below,  a  sort  of  map  of  the 
heavenly   bodies   drawn   on   .stone,  because  they  had 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  349 


nothing  else  to  draw  upon.  The  large  ring  in 
the  centre  represented  the  earth,  the  other  rings — 
seven  in  number — represented  the  sun,  moon,  and  the 
five  planets,  the  distances  of  which  from  the  centre 
corresponded  sufficiently  well  with  the  observations  of 
the  Greek  Philosophers.  At  the  outside  was  Saturn, 
next  on  another  part  of  the  plane  was  Jupiter,  and  so 
on  to  the  nearest,  the  moon.  But  now,"  he  would 
say,  "  I  have  to  draw  your  attention  to  what  is  really 
curious.  The  person  who  drew  these  figures  was 
acquainted  with  the  theory  of  Epicycles.  Each  planet, 
you  see,  is  not  a  simple  solid  body.  It  is  a  ring.  The 
planet  itself  is  marked  as  a  black  spot  on  the  ring,  and 
we  have  a  picture  of  the  movements  which  the  theory 
of  Epicycles  was  to  explain.  The  rings  were  carried 
round  in  the  regular  circuit,  taking  the  planets  with 
them.  But  each  ring  had  a  rotation  of  its  own,  or 
each  planet  described  a  small  circle  of  its  own  round 
the  centre  of  it,  and  thus  the  great  puzzle  was  ex- 
plained, that  these  bodies  move  generally  in  one 
direction,  but  are  occasionally  seen  to  retrograde. 
Here  you  perceive  are  the  rings,  and  here  are  the 
planetary  bodies  themselves.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  be 
mistaken — especially  when  we  have  a  skilful  engraver 
to  point  the  figures  as  they  ought  to  be  pointed. 
The  result,  if  interesting  in  one  sense,  is  disappointing 
in  another,  for,  \{  I  am  correct  in  what  I  tell  you,  the 
stone  cannot  be  older  than  the  time  of  Hipparchus  ; 
for  the  hypothesis  of  Epicycles  was  his.  I  had  hoped 
to  find  that  the  inscriptions  were  of  deeper  antiquity ; 
but,  at  any  rate,  it  shows  how  careful  the  Druids  were 
to  keep  on  a  level  with  the  latest  discoveries." 

"  We  need  not  ask  you  who  your  Dr.  S may 

be,"  said  Fitzherbert.     "  I  suppose  that  for  my  sins  I 


350  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

have  sate  under  him  myself.  Pardon  me  for  saying 
that  your  discourse  upon  this  stone  is  an  illustration 
of  what  all  this  glorification  of  Irish  antiquities  really 
comes  to.  You  bring  with  you  what  you  think  you 
find  ;  you  have  a  few  hieroglyphics  which  you  can't 
read,  and  you  build  on  them  whatever  you  please." 

Vavasour,  alive  as  he  was  to  the  absurdities  of  many 
of  his  friends,  and  even  of  himself  in  his  enthusiastic 
moments,  would  not  leave  his  favourite  pursuit 
undefended.  There  was  proof,  he  said,  in  the 
language,  in  the  old  Poetr}^,  in  the  Legends  of  the 
Saints,  in  many  of  the  less  disputable  monuments, 
that  the  Celtic  Irish  had  once  been  an  interesting 
people,  full  of  energy,  intellect,  and  high  spirit.  If 
they  were  to  be  raised  again  to  a  higher  level,  it 
could  only  be  done  by  reminding  them  of  the  quali- 
ties of  their  forefathers,  and  waking  up  again  the 
ancient  genius  of  their  race. 

"  And  for  my  part,  Vavasour,"  said  Fitzherbert, 
"  I  think  you  cannot  possibly  find  a  worse  employ- 
ment for  your  talents.  What  the  Tuatha  de  Danans 
may  have  been,  I  cannot  sa}' ;  but  so  far  as  accurate 
knowledge  goes,  the  Irish  race  have  always  been  noisy, 
useless,  and  ineffectual.  They  draw  their  picture  in 
their  own  annals.  They  have  produced  nothing, 
they  have  done  nothing,  which  it  is  possible  to 
admire.  What  they  are  they  ha\-e  ah\'ays  been,  and 
the  onh'  hope  for  them  is  that  their  ridiculous  Irish 
nationality  should  be  buried  and  forgotten.  It  was 
pretty  well  stamped  out  at  Aughrim.  For  some 
strange  reason  it  has  recently  been  nursed  into  life 
again,  and  likely  enough  we  shall  find  that  we  have 
been  hatching  a  cockatrice.  But  this  is  a  work, 
pardon  me,  which  ne:ds  no  help  from  such  as  you, 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  351 


and  your  idea  of  raising  their  character  by  feeding- 

their  vanity  is   more  worthy  of  Dr.   S than   of 

General  Vavasour." 

The  General  bore  Fitzherbert's  reflections  upon  him 
more  amicably  than  might  have  been  expected.  He 
was  not  in  a  polemical  mood.  Perhaps  the  sight  of 
Goring,  and  of  the  actual  work  which  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  done,  had  shewn  him  that  there 
were  other  ways  of  fastening  the  hold  of  England 
on  the  troublesome  Island  besides  flattering  Irish 
national  sentiment. 

They  rowed  home  together  in  the  summer  twilight ; 
and  so  closed  the  last  day  of  unclouded  enjoyment 
which  the  family  at  Dunboy  were  to  know. 

The  next  morning  the  General  departed.  His 
report  went  home  to  the  Horse  Guards,  and  thence  to 
the  Admiralty.  It  was  so  emphatic  in  its  language, 
it  spoke  so  warmly  of  Colonel  Goring's  deservings, 
and  so  seriously  of  the  danger  of  leaving  so  exposed  a 
part  of  the  coast  without  better  protection,  that  it  was 
not  immediately  thrown  aside.  It  was  referred  to 
Dublin  Castle,  and  thence  back  again  to  London. 
But  no  conclusion  was  arrived  at,  and  in  a  {(t\Y  months 
the  defences  of  Bantry  Bay  were  forgotten  in  the 
larger  anxieties  of  the  war. 

About  the  same  time  that  Goring's  hopes  on  this 
side  had  died  away,  he  was  informed  of  the  final 
decision  which  had  been  arrived  at  about  his  chapel 
and  school.  It  had  been  ruled  that  the  Protestant 
colony  at  Dunboy  did  not  fall  within  the  limits  con- 
templated by  the  Toleration  Act.  Power  had  been 
reserved,  when  that  Act  was  passed,  to  exclude 
from  the  benefit  of  it  all  bodies  professing  opinions 
dangerous  to  the  established  constitution.     And  the 


352  THE    TWO   CHIEFS,    OF  DUNBOY. 

majority  of  the  congregation  at  Dunboy  were  Inde- 
pendents, whose  views  were  identical  with  those 
which  in  the  preceeding  century  had  produced  revolu- 
tion and  anarchy.  The  irregularities  of  their  conduct 
justified  the  worst  construction  of  their  character. 
They  had  opened  their  chapel  before  registration  had 
been  obtained  from  the  proper  authorities,  and 
had  persevered  in  spite  of  the  admonition  of  the 
Diocesan.  They  had  established  a  school  in  direct* 
defiance  of  the  law,  and  had  prevented  the  clergyman 
of  the  nearest  church  from  exercising  control  over  it. 
It  had  been  ascertained  also,  that  the  persons  who 
were  acting  in  this  disorderly  manner,  had  provided 
themselves  with  arms,  and  had  been  trained  and 
drilled  in  the  use  of  them,  to  the  danger  of  the  peace 
of  the  Realm.  The  Council  of  State  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  to  grant  formal  toleration  to  a 
community  of  such  a  character  would  lead  to  the 
establishment  of  others  of  a  similar  kind.  The 
growth  of  societies  of  Protestants  in  the  Southern 
Provinces  of  Ireland  could  not  fail  to  create  irritation 
among  the  Catholic  inhabitants,  and  disturb  the  im- 
proved feeling  between  the  two  races  which  the 
conciliatory  policy  of  the  British  Government  was 
tending  to  produce.  P'or  these  reasons  it  was  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  Judges  that  the  registration 
could  not  be  conceded.  And  the  Council  of  State 
entertained  no  doubt  that  an  officer  of  so  high  a 
character  and  reputation  as  Colonel  Goring,  would 
comply  at  once  with  a  resolution  thus  conveyed  to 
him  in  a  friendly  manner,  and  would  render  un- 
necessary any  further  proceedings. 

It  was  over.     Colonel  Goring   had    been  too  san- 
guine,   under     the    influence    of    powerful    religious 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  353 

impressions,  and  had  been  led  by  the  experiences  of 
Ulster,  to  believe  that  the  best  security  for  the  peace 
and  welfare  of  Ireland,  was  the  establishment  of  Pro- 
testant settlements  on  Cromwell's  principles.  He  had 
taken  the  opportunity  of  his  inheritance  of  the  estate 
at  Dunboy  to  act  upon  his  convictions.  He  was  so 
certain  that  he  would  be  doing  good  service  both  to 
his  country  and  to  his  Master  in  Heaven,  that  the 
quarter  in  which  difficulties  might  arise,  had  never  so 
much  as  occurred  to  him.  He  had  selected  serious 
and  earnest  men  to  share  his  enterprise,  because  he 
knew  that  he  could  rely  on  their  courage  and 
stability.  And  they  had  been  too  good,  too  com- 
pletely true  to  their  faith,  and  were  not  malleable  into 
the  shape  which  the  habits  of  the  country  and  the 
policy  of  the  Government  required.  Their  own  elders 
had  been  right.  Plainly  it  was  not  the  will  of  God 
that  such  plants  should  thrive  on  Irish  soil.  And 
Goring  no  longer  attempted  to  oppose  those  who 
represented  to  him  that  the  voice  of  God  was  not 
to  be  mistaken,  and  that  they  must  join  their  brethren 
in  New  England. 

It  was  plain  to  him  that  the  Colony  must  abandon 
its  militant  character.  He  had  not  himself  formally 
left  the  Established  Church.  Among  his  tenants 
and  workmen  there  was  a  mild  and  gentle  minority, 
who  were  willing  to  remain  with  him  on  quiet  terms. 
The  Church  at  Glengariff  would  serve  for  him  and 
for  them.  The  rest  he  knew  that  it  would  be  useless 
to  try  to  persuade,  and  it  would  be  equally  undesir- 
able to  push  any  further  his  quarrel  with  the  Govern- 
ment. Out  of  the  hundred  families  whom  he  had 
introduced  upon  the  estate,  sixty  left  him  in  the  fall 
of  the  year,  and  took  their  passage  at  Cork  for  Rhode 


554  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


Island.  He  offered  to  pay  their  expenses,  but  they 
had  thriven  in  his  employment.  They  had  saved 
money,  and  would  not  allow  him  to  take  the  burden 
u-pon  himself.  All  their  property  which  they  could 
not  sell  or  remove,  they  left  as  a  free  gift  among  their 
comrades  who  stayed  behind.  But  the  fighting  strength 
of  the  community  was  departed.  Those  whose  faith 
or  whose  fanaticism  led  them  to  believe  themselves 
soldiers  of  the  Almighty,  and  in  that  dread  enlist- 
ment feared  nothing  but  to  be  found  unworthy  of 
their  calling,  they  were  gone.  And  as  in  the  clearing 
of  a  forest,  when  the  great  trees  are  felled,  the  wind 
rushes  in  and  chills  and  blights  the  undergrowth,  so 
after  their  brethren  had  passed  away,  the  remaining 
members  of  the  Dunboy  settlement  went  about  their 
business  with  languid  hearts,  no  longer  hoping. 
They  took  their  quiet  way  on  Sundays  to  Glengariff 
Church,  but  there  was  no  longer  any  song  of  battle 
in  them  for  the  cause  of  the  Lord.  And  they  too 
although  for  shame  they  could  not  yet  propose  to 
forsake  the  Colonel,  yet  felt  themselves  to  be  strangers 
in  an  enemy's  land,  and  began  to  cast  their  eyes 
backwards  across  St.  Georcre's   Channel   to  their  old 


villages  on  the  Cornish  coast. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  story  now  returns  to  Morty  Sullivan,  who  was 
left  repairing  damages  at  Ballinskelligs,  after  his  escape 
through  Dursey  Sound.  A  single  tide  sufficed  fcr 
him  to  nail  plates  over  the  shot-holes  in  his  hull  and 
•splice  his  damaged  rigging.  He  made  his  way  without 
further  adventure  to   Nantes,  where  the  Doutelle  was 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  355 

overhauled  and  refitted.     After  the  display  which  he 
had   made  of  daring  and  seamanship,  there  were  no 
more  murmurs  among  the  crew  ;  the  old  hands  were 
eager  to  sail  with  him,  and  he  had   his  choice   among 
the  most  desperate  villains  in  the  mouth  of  the  Loire. 
The   loss  of  the  arms  at  Glengariff  was   more  than 
compensated,  in  the  opinion  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment, by  his  defeat  of  an  English  frigate,  and  as  there 
were  not    many  officers   in   the  French  service  who 
could  boast  of  such  an  exploit,  they  were   the   more 
ready  to  trust  him  with  a  larger  adventure.     He  had 
a  letter  of  marque  which   would     open   the    French 
harbours  to  him  in  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  in  less 
than  a  month  he  was  again  at  sea,  and  had  captured 
a  large  vessel  in  the  mouth  of  the  Channel,  which  was 
sailing  without  a  convoy,  as  the  Speaker  had  informed 
Goring   at  Dublin.       Thence  he  bore   away   to  the 
West  Indies,  where  his  exploits  for  the  next  fourteen 
months  made  him  as  famous  as  Morgan  or  Kidd.    He 
took  a  hundred  prizes.     He  cut  out  a  richly  loaded 
barque  from  the  roads  at  Bridgetown,  under  the  guns 
of  the  fort.     He  raised  a  mutiny  among  the  Irish  at 
Montserrat,  who  sacked  a  dozen  planters'  houses,  and 
set  the  town  on  fire.     Most  of  them  were  killed.     The 
survivors  he   carried  away  to  Hayti.     He   laughed  at 
the  West  Indian   Squadron.     He   ran  away  from  the 
frigates.     He  fought  and  beat  the  brigs  and   brigan- 
tines  of  his  own  size.     His  captives   he  sold   at  Mar- 
tinique, or  at  New  Orleans,  or  at  any   French  port 
which  he  happened  to  be  near.      His  head-quarters 
were  among  the  Lagoons  at  Espafiola,   where,  if  he 
was  hard  pressed,   an  inaccessible  retreat  was  always 
open    to    him.      Not  Captain    Daniel    himself    ever 
created   such  havoc,  or  excited    such  alarm    in    the 

23* 


.356  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


English  possessions  in  those  seas,  as  Morty  Sullivan, 
in  a  single  year.  His  men  were  glutted  with  plunder. 
To  himself,  so  easy  his  conquests,  the  career  was  tame 
in  its  monotony  of  success.  But  he  was  making  a 
name,  and  establishing  a  claim  for  advancement  in 
some  more  honourable  service.  He  was  picking  up 
wealth,  too,  spoiling  the  English  enemy,  and  reveng- 
ing the  wrongs  of  his  countrymen.  Had  he  tempted 
fortune  much  longer,  the  end  of  him  would  probably 
have  been  like  the  end  of  most  of  his  predecessors  on 
the  same  road.  The  English  looked  upon  him^  as  a 
rebel  and  an  outlaw.  They  would  have  taken  him  at 
last,  and  he  and  his  followers  would  have  swung  on 
Gallows  Point  at  Port  Royal.  But  the  plot  was  thicken- 
ing at  home.  The  French  were  supposed  to  be 
meditating  an  in\-asion  of  England.  They  were 
really  purposing  the  long-threatened  attempt  on 
Ireland,  which  had  been  talked  of  so  long  that 
nobody  believed  in  it.  Representations  had  been 
made  to  them  from  all  parts  of  the  country  that  the 
people  were  ready  to  rise.  The  Presbyterians  in  the 
North  were  supposed  to  be  disgusted  at  the  restric- 
tions to  which  they  were  still  subject.  Emissaries 
from  the  Southern  counties  assured  the  P'rench  Court 
that  the  Catholics  would  welcome  a  delivering  army 
with  unanimous  enthusiasm.  Ireland  being  the  side 
where  P^ngland  was  most  vulnerable,  a  squadron 
was  fitting  out  at  Brest  to  make  the  experiment  ;  but 
it  was  still  undecided  in  what  part  of  the  Island  the 
attempt  should  be  made.  It  was  necessary  to  be 
careful.  Irish  promises  did  not  always  becon:e  per- 
formance. Landings  in  Ireland  by  sympathizing 
Catholic  foreigners  had  been  many  times  tried,  but 
had  never  yet  prospered.     They  had  arrived  on  the  un- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUXBOY.  357 

derstanding  that  they  were  to  be  joined  by  a  hundred 
thousand  patriots  in  arms.  But  the  patriots  had 
proved  phantoms,  and  the  Enghsh  soldiers  had  been 
reahties  ;  and  the  result  had  been  disaster.  This  time 
Louis  and  his  advisers  meant  to  be  sure  of  their 
ground.  It  was  from  the  South  that  they  had  received 
the  strongest  assurances ;  but  the}'  required  the 
opinion  of  some  one  on  whom  they  could  entirely 
rely,  as  to  what  they  might  really  expect,  and  for  this 
purpose  they  cast  their  eyes  on  Morty  Sullivan.  He 
was  Irish  of  the  Irish,  but  his  practical  training  had 
corrected  the  faults  of  his  blood.  He  understood  his 
own  people,  and  they  would  be  unable  to  take  him  in 
with  unmeaning  professions.  No  one  understood 
better  the  connection  between  means  and  ends,  or  was 
less  likely  to  confound  loud  talk  with  silent  purpose. 
Morty  could  be  trusted  better  than  any  living  man 
to  ascertain  whether  there  was  a  real  basis  for  the 
enthusiastic  accounts  of  the  popular  disposition  and 
forwardness  which  they  had  received  from  their  Irish 
emissaries. 

Thus  some  fourteen  months  after  he  had  started 
on  his  raid  among  the  West  Indies,  Morty  Sullivan 
received  a  communication  from  the  Governor  at  Port- 
au-Prince  that  his  pi^sence  was  required  at  home. 
The  French  Cabinet  had  a  service  of  importance  for 
him,  and  he  was  to  repair  to  Nantes  without  loss  of 
time.  His  ship's  company  and  himself  were  equally 
willing  to  be  gone.  The  men  wished  to  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  their  adventures  in  Europe.  Morty  had 
always  loo'  ed  forward  to  changing  his  privateering 
for  employment  better  suited  for  a  gentleman.  He 
took  leave  of  his  cruising  ground,  going  off  with  flying 
colours,  and   laughing  at  the   English  cruisers  which 


358  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

caught  sight  of  him  and  chased  him.  He  made  a 
swift  passage  across  the  Atlantic,  and  arrived  at 
Nantes  late  in  the  same  winter  in  which  Colonel 
Goring's  colony  had  begun  to  dissolve.  At  Nantes 
he  found  dispatches  waiting  for  him.  He  was 
ordered  to  repair  instantly  to  the  coast  of  Kerry. 
The  Doiitelle  and  her  crew  \^'ere  to  be  left  behind. 
The  vessel  was  known  and  would  be  recognised,  and 
his  presence  in  Ireland  was  to  be  kept  an  absolute 
secret,  except  from  a  few  persons  who  could  be 
trusted.  Blake  had  fitted  up  for  him  one  of  the 
fast  luggers,  which  were  used  in  the  ordinary  fishing 
trade,  and  would  pass  unobserved  by  any  English 
ships  of  war  which  might  be  on  the  look-out  at 
the  Land's  End.  His  commission  was  to  ascertain 
the  actual  state  of  readiness  of  the  Southern  Province, 
and  what  the  French  might  count  on  in  case  they 
landed.  Magnificent  promises  were  made  to  him 
should  he  be  able  to  accomplish  anything  of  value, 
and  at  all  events  he  \\'as  told  that  his  services  in  the 
West  Indies  would  not  go  unrewarded. 

It  was  not  without  misgivings  that  IMcrty  accepted 
the  commision,  for  he  saw  that  considerable  expecta- 
tions had  been  formed  of  the  state  of  things  in 
Ireland.  The  patriotic  leaders  had  as  usual  so  mag- 
nified their  resources,  that  Louis  had  asked  in  wonder 
why,  if  they  were  so  strong  and  so  united,  they  had 
not  driven  the  English  into  the  sea.  Arms  they 
had,  for  they  had  been  amply  supplied.  What  could 
they  be  waiting  for  ?  The  answer  had  been  that  they 
could  not  rise  till  they  had  French  troops  actually 
present  among  them,  and  Morty  had  heard  the  same 
story  too  often  to  put  much  faith  in  it.  The  lugger, 
however,   was   ready   in    the   river.      The   wind   \\'as 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY 


159 


steady  from  the  East.  The  weather  promised  well 
and  Blake  hurried  him  on  board.  Connell  only  went 
with  him  of  his  old  comrades.  They  sailed  under 
false  names,  and  the  skipper  only  knew  them  as 
agents  whom  the  firm  was  employing  upon  secret 
business. 

And  now  the  reader  must  again  conceive  himself 
in  the  old  country,  at  a  spot  to  which  he  has  not 
been  hitherto  introduced,  though  it  was  but  a  few 
miles  distant  from  the  residence  of  Colonel  Gorincr. 

o 

Bally  Quoilach  Bay  is  an  estuary  of  the  Kenmare 
River,  lying  between  Ardgroom  and  Dursey  Island, 
and  immediately  opposite  to  Darrynane.  The 
entrance  is  covered  by  a  long,  flat-topped  rocky 
Island,  ground  smooth  by  glaciers,  which  forms  a 
natural  breakwater,  while  inside  there  are  hidden 
shoals  and  reefs,  through  which  there  is  but  one 
passage,  that  twists  and  winds  like  a  snake.  Thus 
the  approach  is  very  dangerous.  Large  ships  cannot 
venture  in  at  all,  nor  vessel  of  any  kind  without  a  local 
pilot.  Inside,  however,  when  these  perils  are  all 
passed,  there  is,  in  one  corner  of  the  ba}^,  a  quiet  basin, 
into  which  even  the  swell  of  the  open  ocean  fails  to 
penetrate,  with  a  bottom  of  sand  which  slopes  up 
gradually  to  a  beach  of  powdered  sea  shell.  At  a 
little  distance  is  the  mouth  of  a  small  river,  like  that 
where  Ulysses  landed  in  Phoeacia,  and  here  too 
Kings'  daughters  and  their  maidens  may  have  washed, 
their  house  linen  and  spread  it  to  dry  on  the  shingle, 
for  the  spot  was  the  favourite  haunt  of  sea  rovers. 
Who  these  rovers  were,  whether  Danes,  Saxons,  or 
native  Irish,  none  can  say  ;  but,  as  in  Kilmakilloge, 
there  is  clear  proof  that  a  population  of  this  adven- 
turous kind    once  made  their  homes  there,   and   fitter 


36o  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

sheltering  place  could    have  been   found  nowhere  on 
the  Irish  shores. 

Pillar  stones  mark  where  the  bones  of  their  chiefs 
turned  to  dust.  There  are  large  Raths,  with  their 
labyrinths  of  subterranean  cellars.  General  Vava- 
sour might  have  discovered  traces  of  the  Druids 
there.  The  most  sober  enquirer  would  be  satisfied 
that  the  place  had  once  been  thickh'  occupied,  and 
by  inhabitants  who  had  something  else  to  live  upon 
beyond  what  the  soil  could  yield  them. 

For  the  valley  which  opens  on  the  Bay,  is  but  one 
of  the  series  of  hollows  through  ^^•hich  the  rain  which 
falls  on  the  mountain  that  divides  Cork  from  Kerry, 
finds  its  way  into  the  sea.  It  is  about  four  miles 
deep,  measured  from  the  water-shed  to  the  mouth 
of  the  stream  which  drains  it.  It  is  crossed  by  large 
moraines,  and  the  ground  is  exceptionally  good.  But 
there  is  not  enough  of  fertile  land  to  have  supported 
more  than  a  scanty  population  before  the  days  of  the 
potato.  A  horse  track  from  Ardgroom  passed 
through  it  over  the  hills  to  Dunboy.  But  the  track 
was  seldom  used,  for  there  was  little  intercouse 
between  the  two  districts.  Bally  Ouoilach,  like  Der- 
reen,  still  remained,  either  by  lease  or  otherwise, 
in  possession  of  th?  O'Sullivans,  and  they  clung  to 
it  with  passionate  tenacit}\  Morty  Sullivan's  father 
had  resided  there,  and  had  been  in  trouble  more 
than  once  with  the  authorities  for  skeltering  Rap- 
parees  and  Tories.  He  had  sent  his  son  abroad 
to  find  employment  better  suited  to  his  rank  and 
birth ;  but  he  had  continued  to  live  there  himself 
in  friendly  intercour  e  with  his  kinsman  at  Derreen. 
Out  of  the  Rapparees,  as  the  Revolution  Settlement 
relapsed  into  Anarchy,  had  developed  the   smugglers, 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  361 

and  for  many  years  an  active  contraband  business  was 
carried  on  in  the  Bay.  On  the  old  man's  death, 
Morty  ought  to  have  succeeded,  but  either  he  did 
not  press  his  right,  or  it  was  forfeited  by  his  outlawry. 
The  estate  had  fallen  to  the  widowed  sister  whom 
Goring  had  removed  from  Dursey  Island,  and  she 
with  her  son,  a  boy  of  seven  years  old,  was  now 
residing  there,  the  chief  or  chieftainess  of  the 
relics  of  a  clan  as  wild  as  the  wildest  of  the  Scotch 
Highlanders,  and  equally  ready  to  do  her  bidding, 
lawful  or  unlawful.  These  fierce  Caterans  would  have 
long  since  swept  Goring  out  of  Dunboy,  and  burnt 
his  roof  over  his  head,  but  for  the  wholesome  fear  in 
which  they  stood  of  his  Protestant  guard. 

The  lady's  dwelling-house  deserves  particular  de- 
scription. The  river,  in  ordinary  weather,  was  a  mere 
brook,  trickling  innocently  among  the  stones.  In 
heavy  rains  it  became  a  furious  torrent.  Kerry  is  a 
damp  county,  and  the  floods  had  long  since  made  it 
necessary  to  throw  a  bridge  across  the  stream,  for  the 
use  of  the  cattle.  A  hundred  yards  below  the  bridge, 
protected  by  a  rock  at  the  back,  and  sheltered  by  a 
wall,  stood  the  ancient  baronial  mansion  of  Eyris.  In 
front  was  a  rude  garden,  with  the  river  beyond.  The 
sea  was  a  quarter-of-a-mile  off 

The  building  itself,  and  the  structure  of  it,  told 
the  tale  of  its  history.  It  was  quadrangular,  with 
a  court  in  the  middle.  The  living  rooms  were  on 
the  ground  floor,  with  garrets  in  the  roof,  and  the 
roof  itself  was  thatched.  The  walls  were  of  massive 
stone,  and  the  timbers,  which  were  of  solid  oak,  had 
once  formed  the  ribs  and  beams  of  a  large  ship.  A 
dozen  cabins  now  occupy  the  old  site.  The  rafters  of 
the   O'Sullivan    mansion    can    still    be  seen  in   them 


362  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


charred   with    fire,    and    the    auger-holes  which  were 
bored  in  them  when  the  ship  was  built.     The  dimen- 
sions of  the  house  were  evidently  considerable.     It 
w-as  not  only  the  home  of  the  chief,  but  the  home  of 
the  crews  of  his  vessels.     It  was  a  refuge  for  hunted 
outlaws,  and  was  constructed  to  resist  the  attacks  of  a 
sheriff's  party,  should  any  sheriff  be  rash  enough  to 
pay  a  visit  there.     It  was  a  magazine  of  ships'  stores, 
and  a  warehouse  of  cargoes.      There  was  a  black- 
smith's  shop   and   a  carpenter's  shop.      There  were 
outbuildings  filled  with  spare  sails,  coils  of  rope,  spars, 
copper  and   iron   bolts,   anchors,  chains,  and   all   the 
necessaries  for  the  repairing  or  fitting  out  vessels.    The 
hall,  or  family  sitting-room,  was  itself  an  arsenal,  being 
hung  round  w^th  muskets,  blunderbusses,  pistols,  sw^ords 
and  pikes.   It  was  curiously  furnished,  out  of  the  spoils  of 
ships'  cabins  ;  with  sea  chests,  carved  bureaus,  couches, 
tables  of  oak  or  mahogany,  each  one  of  w^hich  had, 
probably,  a  story  connected  with  the  acquisition  of  it. 
On  the  walls  and  before  the  windows  were  curtains  of 
brocade,  soiled  and  faded,  which  once  had  been  laced 
with  eold  and  silver  thread.     In  this  room,  and  in  the 
sleeping   rooms   which    opened   out   of  it,   might   be 
traced  a  woman's  hand.     The  remainder  of  the  habi- 
tation was  made  over  to  the  human  watch-dogs,  who 
littered  about  in  their  own  fashion. 

Here,  since  the  early  part  of  the  century,  the  elder 
Morty  had  maintained  his  patriarchal  rule,  owning  no 
jurisdiction  save  his  own  will  and  strength  of  hand. 
He  had  no  neighbours  to  interfere  with  him.  He 
escaped  molestation  from  the  county  authorities, 
because  no  one  was  sufficiently  interested  in  calling 
him  to  account.  He  filled  the  cellars  of  the  county 
gentlemen  ;    he  supplied   the   ladies'   wardrobes  with 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  363 

silks  and  laces.  In  extremities,  he  used  the  wealth 
which  he  had  acquired  in  making  friends  at  the 
Four  Courts  and  in  Dublin  Castle.  The  Morty  of 
our  story,  and  his  sister,  had  been  born  in  this  house, 
In  it  they  had  spent  their  childhood  and  youth,  with 
the  exception  of  occasional  visits  to  their  Derreen 
kinsman,  who,  being  more  exposed  to  the  world's  eye, 
kept  himself  a  little  further  within  the  lines  of  civili- 
zation. As  he  grew  to  manhood,  Morty's  ambition 
rose  above  so  squalid  and  lawless  a  life  ;  and,  having 
no  opening  at  home,  he  carried  his  sword  into  the 
service  of  the  Catholic  powers  abroad.  His  sister, 
Ellen,  married  a  Mahony,  a  son  of  the  famous  Donnell, 
who  ruled  Kerry  for  a  generation,  with  the  help  of  his 
four  thousand  "  fairies."  Her  husband  dying  soon 
after — being  drowned  in  some  wild  adventure — and 
Morty  being  far  away,  Ellen  and  her  child  had  gone 
to  live  with  her  mother,  at  the  old  castle  at  Dursey. 
from  which  Goring,  in  consequence  of  their  connection 
with  the  smugglers,  found  it  necessary  to  remove 
them.  The  mother  had  died,  it  was  alleged,  in  con- 
sequence of  exposure,  at  the  time  when  they  were 
expelled  ;  and  Ellen  Mahony  had  gone  back  to  her 
own  house  at  Eyris,  burning  with  resentment  at  the 
Saxon  intruder  at  Dunboy,  who  had  added  a  fresh 
injury  to  the  crime  of  being  the  possessor  of  her 
ancestral  home.  There  she  had  remained  for  several 
years,  in  a  wild  element  for  a  well-born  lady.  The 
boy  had  been  bred  among  rough  nurses.  The  old  busi- 
ness had  gone  on  without  interruption.  Goring  had 
hesitated  to  provoke  afresh  so  dangerous  a  neighbour. 
The  Government  would  not  help  him,  or  listen  to  his 
remonstrances,  and  he  had  work  enough  for  his  ov/n 
people  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains. 


364  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

Morty's  reappearance  in  the  Doiitclle,  the  fight  at 
Derreen,  and  his  defeat  at  Glengariff,  were  so  many 
fresh  scores  in  the  accounts  which  were  run  up  against 
Goring  in  the  passionate  lady's  mind.  Morty  had 
gone  again.  Goring  had  left  the  revenue  service. 
Between  the  families  at  Eyris  and  Dunboy  there  was 
no  communication,  and  Goring,  occupied  with  other 
anxieties,  had  forgotten  his  neighbour's  existence.  But 
Ellen  Mahony  brooded  incessantly  on  her  own  and  her 
brother's  wrongs,  and  her  one  thought,  sleeping  and 
waking,  was  of  revenge.  She  had  heard  of  Morty's 
West  Indian  fame,  and  she  was  well  pleased  that  he 
should  be  drawing  the  blood  of  the  hereditary  enemy. 
But  they  had  an  enemy  of  their  own  nearer  home, 
and  her  daily  prayer  was  for  the  French  to  come,  or 
for  the  South  of  Ireland  to  rise  in  rebellion,  when 
the  heretic  strangers  could  be  wiped  out  as  Phelim 
O'Neil  had  wiped  them  out  of  the  North  in  1641. 

So  matters  stood  with  Morty's  widowed  sister,  when 
one  winter's  day  a  French  lugger  swept  into  the  Bay. 
Curiosity  to    learn  who    might   be   the   unlooked-for 
visitors,  brought  her  down  to  the  shore,  where  she  found 
her  brother  and   his  friend.     She   rushed  to  the  con- 
clusion that  this  sudden   arrival    must   be   connected 
with  the  subject   of  which  her   own  mind  was  so  full. 
She  found  Morty  indifferent  and  preoccupied,  and  as 
if  unconscious  of  the   existence   of  Dunboy   and  its 
English  owners.     His  manner  even  to  her  was  cold  and 
absorbed.     He  was  full  of  the  mission  with  which  he 
had  been  entrusted,   and   could  think  of  nothing  else. 
For  a  fortnight  the  emissaries   of  the  secret  societies 
of  Munster  were  coming  and  going  ;  but  it  proved  as 
he  expected,  and  he  could  find  nothing  satisfactory  to 
go  upon.     There  was  the  confident  assertion  that  the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  365 

people  were  ready  to  rise,  and  would  rise  when  the 
French  fleet  came  in  sight.  He  was  reproached  for 
want  of  patriotism  when  he  insisted  on  answers  to  in- 
convenient questions.  Were  the  people  armed  ?  Were 
they  drilled,  and  did  they  know  their  officers  ?  At 
what  points  could  they  be  collected,  and  in  what 
numbers  ?  Had  they  guns,  or  had  they  only  pikes  ? 
Had  the  muskets  and  ammunition  which  had  been 
sent  from  France  been  distributed,  or  were  they 
still  in  hand,  and  where  ?  Should  a  French  force  be 
thrown  on  shore,  how  many  men  could  be  counted  on 
as  ready  to  join  at  short  notice  ?  How  were  the 
French  to  be  fed  if  they  came,  and  what  number  of 
carts  and  carriages  could  be  collected  for  the  transport 
service  ? 

To  all  such  questions  the  answers  were  general  and 
vague.  Was  not  all  Ireland  ready  to  welcome  their 
deliverers  from  English  tyranny  ?  Wouldn't  they 
burn  the  houses  of  the  ^^entry  over  their  heads,  and 
set  the  land  in  a  flame  from  end  to  end  ?  The  Dublin 
boys  would  take  the  Castle.  The  Irish  in  the  English 
regiments  would  shoot  their  officers  and  bring  over  half 
the  army.  All,  in  fact,  was  just  as  it  was  when  Morty 
himself,  as  a  lad,  had  attended  the  Whiteboy  meetings. 
There  was  the  same  enthusiasm  of  the  tongue,  the 
same  absence  of  solid  preparation.  Nothing  had 
changed,  nothing  had  become  firmer  or  more  co- 
herent. Most  capable,  most  secret,  and  most  prac- 
tical as  his  countrymen  had  always  been  when  a 
tithe  proctor  was  to  be  carded  or  an  informer  to  be 
executed,  they  were  as  little  fit  as  ever  for  any  open 
action  in  the  field.  Nay,  he  was  convinced  that  they 
were  no  m.ore  trustworthy  than  they  had  been,  and  if 
any  concerted    scheme   was   formed  for  a  rising,  sup- 


366  THE   TWO   CHIEFS  OF  DUN  BOY. 

ported  by  a  French  force,  it  would  be  betrayed  to  the 
Government.  In  spite  of  the  precautions  taken  to 
keep  his  own  presence  a  secret,  he  had  warning  that 
it  was  known  to  more  persons  than  he  was  aware  of, 
and  that  he  was  himself  in  danger.  His  sorrowful 
conviction  was  that  any  expedition  which  was  sent  to 
help  them  would  meet  the  same  fate  which  had  in- 
variably attended  the  Catholic  sympathizers  that  had 
been  tempted  over  by  these  idle  promises.  They 
would  expect  a  population  in  arms  to  receive  them  ; 
they  would  find  themselves  left  absolutely  alone,  with 
those  whom  they  came  to  help  ready  to  turn  upon 
them  at  their  first  reverse. 

Weary  and  disgusted,  he  had  despatched  Connell 
across  the  water  to  meet  a  party  of  delegates  at 
Derrynane  who  were  to  bring  final  information. 
Should  it  be  as  unsatisfactory  as  he  anticipated,  his 
intention  was  to  return  at  once  to  France  and  warn 
the  Government  that  they  must  put  no  trust  in  Irish 
boastings,  and  that  the  battle  with  England  must  be 
fought  out  elsewhere.  Waiting  anxiously  forConnell's 
return,  he  was  strolling  on  a  soft  winter's  morning 
with  his  sister  along  the  sandy  shore.  The  tide  was 
out.  The  lugger  was  high  and  dry  on  the  beach. 
The  men  had  brought  her  in  at  high  water  to  clear 
her  bottom  of  shell  and  weed.  She  would  float  off 
again  with  the  flood,  and  they  were  busy  scouring  her 
with  brooms  and  scrubbing  brushes.  The  little  boy, 
the  heir  of  the  valley  and  the  chieftainship  of  the 
O'Sullivans,  was  watching  the  men  at  their  work  with 
childish  interest,  or  chasing  the  crabs  as  they  ran 
along  the  wet  sand.  For  how  many  ages  had  the 
bay  and  the  rocks,  and  the  mountains,  looked 
exactly  the  same  as  they  were  looking  then  ?     How 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  367 


many  generations  had  played  their  part  on  the 
same  stage,  eager  and  impassioned  as  if  it  had  been 
created  only  for  them  !  the  half-naked  fishermen  of 
forgotten  centuries  who  had  earned  a  scanty  living 
there  ;  the  monks  from  the  Skelligs  who  had  come  in 
on  highdays  in  their  coracles  to  say  mass  for  them, 
baptize  the  children  or  bury  the  dead  ;  the  Celtic 
chief,  with  saffron  shirt  and  battle  axe,  driven  from 
his  richer  lands  by  Norman  or  Saxon  invaders,  and 
keeping  hold  in  this  remote  spot  on  his  ragged  inde- 
pendence ;  the  Scandinavian  pirates,  the  overflow  of 
the  Northern  Fiords,  looking  for  new  soil  where  they 
could  take  root.  These  had  all  played  their  brief  parts 
there  and  were  gone,  and  as  many  more  would  follow 
in  the  cycles  of  the  years  that  were  to  come,  yet  the 
scene  itself  was  unchanged  and  would  not  change. 
The  same  soil  had  fed  those  that  were  departed,  and 
would  feed  the  others  that  were  to  be.  The  same  land- 
scape had  affected  their  imaginations  with  its  beauty 
or  awed  them  with  its  splendours  ;  and  each  alike 
had  yielded  to  the  same  delusion  that  the  valley  was 
theirs  and  was  inseparably  connected  with  themselves 
and  their  fortunes.  Morty's  career  had  been  a  stormy 
one,  and  his  actions  such  as  weaker  men  might  like 
ill  to  think  of.  He  was  an  outlaw,  and  in  his  enemies' 
judgment  a  pirate  and  a  freebooter,  but  he  had  done 
nothing  which  weighed  on  his  conscience  as  a  crime. 
He  had  been  fighting  all  his  life  ;  but  fighting  chiefly 
against  the  oppressors  of  his  country  and  his  race. 
His  mind  was  free  to  wander  from  his  own  concerns 
into  the  speculations  which  the  scene  suggested.  He 
too  had  played  as  a  child  on  the  same  shore  where 
his  nephew  was  playing  now.  He  had  kindled  with 
his  young  enthusiasm  at  the  tales  which  were  told  him 


368  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


of  his  forefathers.  He  had  gone  out  into  the  world, 
and  had  battled  and  struggled  in  the  holy  cause,  yet 
the  cause  was  not  advanced,  and  it  was  all  nothing. 
He  was  about  to  leave  the  old  place,  probably  for 
ever.  Yet  there  it  was,  tranquil,  calm,  indifferent 
whether  he  came  or  went.  What  was  he  ?  What  v/as 
any  one  ?  To  what  purpose  the  ineffectual  strivings 
of  short-lived  humanity?  Man's  life  was  but  the  shadow 
of  a  dream,  and  his  work  was  but  the  heaping  of  sand 
which  the  next  tide  would  level  flat  again. 

So  Morty  mused  as  he  strolled  to  and  fro,  glancing 
occasionally  seawards  for  signs  of  Connell's  return. 
His  sister  walked  at  his  side,  gnawing  her  lip  im- 
patiently. In  appearance  she  was  very  like  her 
brother.  She  had  the  same  hard,  clean-cut  face,  the 
same  sinewy  figure,  the  same  falcon  eyes,  dark,  fierce, 
and  fearless.  But  Morty's  larger  experience  of  life 
had  taught  him  to  govern  his  passions,  and  had  given 
him  wider  views.  She,  shut  up  on  a  promontory  of 
Kerry,  occupied  alternately  with  her  personal  injuries 
and  with  the  wrongs  of  her  country,  in  whose  cause 
her  family  had  been  robbed  of  their  inheritance,  could 
think  of  nothing  beyond  what  was  immediately  close  to 
her.  Ireland  to  her  was  all  in  all.  To  pray  and  plot  for 
revenge  was  her  only  interest.  If  the  day  of  Ireland's 
liberation  was  never  to  dawn,  she  would  have  it  remain 
for  ever  a  poisoned  thorn  in  the  oppressor's  side. 

Morty  muttered  something  which  did  not  please 
her.  Flushing  up,  and  grinding  the  sand  under  her 
boot,  she  said  : 

"  It  comes  to  this,  then  !  Afcer  all  you  have  done, 
and  all  you  have  suffered,  you  mean  to  abandon  the 
cause,  to  leave  the  land  you  were  born  in,  to  leave 
your  clansfolk,  each   man   of  whom  would  lose    the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  3^9 

last  drop  of  his  blood  for  you,  to  leave  the  last  of 
your  father  s  children,  for  you  need  not  think  that  I 
and  that  child  will  go  with  you  !  I  will  stay  here  till 
I  lie  down  at  my  murdered  mother's  side,  and  the 
accursed  Saxon  that  killed  her  will  reign  over  all  the 
land.  Shame  on  you,  Morty,  and  sorrow  to  the  day 
that  I  heard  the  like  from  the  lips  of  you." 

"  What  would  you  have  ?  "  he  said  bitterly.  "  I 
tell  you  the  people  cannot  fight.  The  heart  is  not  in 
them.  They  will  bluster  and  boast,  but  when  the 
time  comes  for  action,  it  will  only  be  which  shall 
be  first  to  betray  the  other,  and  as  to  me,  would  you 
wish  to  see  me,  who  might  be  holding  high  command 
under  the  Emperor — to  see  me  one  of  Blake's 
skippers  hanging  about  the  coast,  trading  in  wool- 
packs  and  selling  brandy  to  the  Squires,  in  the  hope 
that  a  da\-  may  comx-e  when  the  craven  curs  here  may 
pluck  up  their  hearts.  I  will  not  do  it  !  Come  here, 
Dermot,"  he  called  to  the  boy  who  was  struggling  in 
the  mud  with  a  sand-eel.  "  Can  you  hit  a  mark  yet  ? 
Let  me  see  what  you  can  do  with  this,"  and  he  drew 
a  pistol  from  his  belt. 

The  child's  eyes  glittered  as  he  looked  with  delight 
at  the  long,  chased  Spanish  barrel.  "  I  shot  a  gull 
once,  Uncle,"  he  answered.  "  Paddy  O'Brien  held  the 
gun,  but  I  aimed  it,  and  I  pulled  the  trigger,  and  the 
bird  tumbled  off  the  rock  into  the  water,  and  Paddy 
swam  in  and  brought  it  out  in  his  mouth  like  a  dog, 
and  he  said  the  best  shot  in  the  Barony  could  not 
have  done  it  better." 

"  Well  then,"  said  Morty.  "  now  you  shall  hold  the 
pistol  yourself.  You  see  that  white  mark  on  the 
stone  yonder.  Try  if  you  can  put  a  ball  into  the 
middle  of  it." 

24 


370  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


In  both  hands,  for  the  p'stol  was  too  heavy  for  him 
to  hold  in  one,  the  child  grasped  the  butt,  a  little 
alarmed,  but  too  proud  to  shew  it.  He  clenched  it 
firmly,  levelled  and  fired.  Tlie  pistol  sprang  out  of 
his  hand  with  the  recoil,  the  guard  cutting  the  middle 
finger  to  the  bone,  but  he  neither  flinched  nor  cried, 
and  the  ball,  more  by  chance  than  skill,  went  true  to 
the  centre  of  the  spot. 

"  Well  done,  little  fellow,"  said  his  uncle.  "  You 
shall  have  a  pistol  for  your  own,  as  a  birthday  present, 
and  here  is  a  King  George's  shilling  for  you." 

"  I'll  not  touch  a  shilling  of  King  George's,"  cried 
the  boy.  "  Not  if  you  never  give  me  anything  more 
in  all  your  life,  Uncle  Morty." 

"  Here  is  a  young  eaglet  for  you,"  Morty  said. 
"  What  sort  of  a  bird  will  you  grow  into  I  wonder,  if 
you  scream  so  loud  when  you  can  scarce  flutter  along 
alone.  You  should'nt  bark,  Dermot,  before  your 
teeth  are  grown.  What  would  you  like  to  do  with 
yourself  when  you  come  to  be  a  man  ?  " 

"  I'll  learn  to  shoot  while  I'm  little.  Uncle," 
answered  the  boy,  "and  I  think  I  will  take  the 
shilling  you  give  me.  I'll  set  it  up  for  a  mark,  and 
practise  at  the  face  that's  on  it ;  and  when  I'm  big, 
and  can  make  sure  of  hitting,  I'll  watch  behind  a  wall 
and  shoot  the  English  Colonel  that  lives  in  the  place 
that  ought  to  belong  to  us." 

"God  help  the  child,"  said  Morty.  "You  have 
schooled  him  well,  Ellen,  and  when  he  grows  up  he 
will  be  an  honour  to  the  family.  So  it  is  with  us  all. 
None  are  braver  than  we,  when  cows'  tails  are  to  be 
cut  off,  or  the  enemies  of  the  country  shot  from  a 
hiding  place.  But  to  stand  up  and  fight  the  Saxon 
in   an  honourable  field,  as  the   Scots  did  with  Bruce 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    Of  DUN  BOY.  37 1 


and  Wallace,  that  is  beyond  us.  And  therefore  we 
are  as  we  are.  No  nation  ever  trusted  us  that  they 
did  not  rue  the  day.  Ask  the  French,  ask  the 
Spaniards.  They  will  tell  you  the  same  story.  We 
have  made  the  name  of  Irish  patriot  a  bye- word  of 
contempt  through  Europe.  What  curse  is  on  us,  that 
only  when  we  have  left  our  miserable  country  our 
courage  and  manliness  come  back  to  us  ?  " 

"  Shame  on  ye  Morty,  once  more,"  said  his  sister, 
"to  speak  evil  of  the  land  of  your  birth.  What 
nation  ever  held  out  against  oppression  as  we  have 
done?  For  six  hundred  years  the  hoof  of  the 
stranger  has  been  on  our  necks.  He  has  torn  our 
lands  from  us.  If  he  could,  he  would  have  torn  fron 
us  our  faith  and  our  God.  We  have  been  as  the  Fox 
in  the  Wolf's  mouth.  The  Wolf  is  the  stronger. 
But  the  Fox's  heart  has  not  failed  him,  and  his  wit 
has  not  failed  him.  He  fights  on,  with  such  arms  as 
nature  has  given  him,  and  the  Wolf  will  be  beaten  in 
the  end." 

"  The  Wolf  will  bite  the  Fox's  head  off  one  of 
these  days,  if  he  does  not  look  out  for  himself.  Man- 
kind would  not  be  much  the  worse  for  the  absence  of 
him.  Constant  !  Yes,  we  have  been  constant. 
What  were  we  when  we  had  the  Island  to  ourselves  ? 
If  you  can  believe  those  glorious  ballad  singers  and 
annalists  of  ours,  we  were  no  better  than  the  can- 
nibals of  the  Pacific.  If  we  were  again  free,  we 
should  cut  one  another's  throats  in  the  old  style, 
God  knows  I  have  no  love  for  the  English.  I  would 
put  a  ball  through  Goring's  head  to-morrow,  and 
desire  no  better  day's  work.  But  it  must  be  in  fair 
fight,  man    to    man ;    I    have   no   taste    for   shooting 

from  behind  hedges." 

24* 


372  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

"  Aye,  Morty,  you  are  for  honourable  ways.  And 
to  what  honour  are  we  bound,  when  the  strong  thief 
is  in  our  homes,  and  our  children  are  turned  away 
from  their  own  doors  to  starve.  \  fair  fight  in  my 
mind  is  too  much  honour  for  the  like  of  him.  Take 
him  in  the  front,  if  you  have  the  chance  to  meet  him 
in  the  front.  Shoot  him  in  the  back  as  you  would 
.shoot  a  mad  dog,  if  you  have  no  better  opportunit}', 
and  rid  the  earth  of  him  any  way.  You  are  sore 
spoilt  with  those  foreign  notions  of  yours,  Mort}', 
since  you  have  been  among  strangers.  Civilized 
nations!  Bad  luck  to  their  civility!  Barring  the  t 
they  are  good  Christians,  and  pray  to  the  Saints  and 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  they  are  no  better  than  the 
Saxons  for  all  that  I  can  see.  You  say  the  French 
can't  trust  us,  and  we  ready  to  risk  life  and  all  at  their 
side  if  they  will  only  help  us." 

"  Well,  well,  Ellen,  we  will  not  quarrel  about  it,  but 
I'd  be  well  pleased  if  I  had  never  left  the  Emperor's 
service.  I  had  cut  my  way  to  reputation.  I  have 
been  thanked  on  the  field  for  my  services.  By  this 
time  I  might  ha\'e  been  b}-  the  side  of  Lacy  and 
O'Donnell  at  the  head  of  armies,  with  you,  sister,  in 
your  proper  place  among  the  great  of  the  earth, 
instead  of  dragging  out  a  soiled  existence,  doing  the 
dirty  work  of  the  Court  at  Versailles.  I  might  have 
bred  that  young  fellow  to  be  a  brave  soldier,  to 
live  as  a  man  should  live,  and  leave  a  respected  naire 
behind  him.  What  am  I  now  ?  A  desperate  adven- 
turer, who,  if  he  fails  and  is  taken,  will  be  hanged  as 
a  felon  and  an  outlaw.  I  have  been  the  associate  of 
a  set  of  villains  who  cared  for  nothing  but  plunder. 
If  I  now  tempt  the  French  by  false  information  to 
send  an  expedition  here,  it  will  end  as  all   such  enter- 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  373 


prises  have  ended  before.  We  call  ourselves  Patriots, 
and  we  have  not  the  spirit  to  face  our  tyrants  like 
men.  We  are  false  to  one  another.  We  shall  be 
false  to  any  friend  that  trusts  us.  I  will  have  no  more 
of  it.  The  Austrians  will  take  me  back  if  I  ask 
them.  France,  herself,  has  promised  me  employment 
by  land  or  sea.  I  will  go,  and  forget  these  last  years 
as  a  miserable  dream." 

"  And  leave  your  fine  Colonel,"  said  she,  "  in  the 
home  of  your  fathers,  him  that  hunted  >'ou  from 
Culloden  field,  and  drove  your  mother  from  the 
roof  that  sheltered  her,  and  gave  you  your  own  life 
at  Derreen  House — I  wonder  that  you  would  take 
the  gift  at  such  a  hand — and  slaughtered  your  boat's 
crew  at  Glengariff,  and  brought  the  King's  ship  upon 
you  after  that.  I  would  rather  that  ship  had  sunk 
you  with  her  guns  in  Dursey  Sound,  or  that  }'OU 
were  now  lying  dead  on  the  shore  where  you  stand, 
than  that  you  should  go  away  and  leave  that  man 
unpunished." 

"  Ellen,"  he  answered,  "  you  will  drive  me  to  madness 
if  you  speak  like  that !  My  better  nature  calls  me 
one  way  and  the  devil  by  the  voice  of  yourself  calls 
me  another.  But  a  boat  is  coming  round  the  rocks  ! 
It  is  Connell  at  last,  and  there  are  others  with  him  ! 
We  shall  hear  now  what  is  to  be  looked  for.  If,  as  I 
suppose,  it  is  all  froth  and  foam,  I  shall  know  what 
to  do  ! " 


374  THE    Tira   CHIEFS   OF  DUKBOY. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

The  boat  which  Morty  had  seen  came  in  swiftly  over 
the  smooth  water  of  the  estuary.  Four  men  were 
rowing,  apparently  fishermen.  The  boat  itself  was  of 
the  native  build  of  the  country — a  light  framework 
of  ash  covered  with  cow  hide,  and  held  in  shape  by 
the  keel  and  the  cross  benches  which  formed  the 
seats  of  the  rowers.  It  was  frail  to  look  at,  but  it  was 
buoyant,  and  able  to  encounter  seas  when  stouter 
vessels  would  have  found  their  end.  Connell  was 
steering,  and  two  persons  were  sitting  in  the  stern 
beside  him,  one  of  whom,  as  they  stepped  on  shore, 
was  seen  to  be  old  Sylvester  O'Sullivan  ;  the  other 
was  a  stranger,  and  a  note  which  Connell  handed  to 
Morty  referred  him  to  this  gentleman  for  an  answer 
to  all  enquiries  which  he  had  to  make.  S}'lvester,  it 
seemed,  had  been  taken  into  counsel,  and,  affecting 
the  ease  and  intimacy  of  relationship,  he  seized 
Morty's  hand. 

"  Welcome  home,"  he  said.  "  Right  glad  are  we  to 
see  ye  once  more  on  your  own  soil,  after  all  ye  have 
done  !  Long  may  }'e  live  and  reign  among  us  !  We 
p.re   from   Derrynane   this   morning,  and   this   is    Mr. 

.     But  we  will  name  no  names.     It  is  safest  so. 

This  is  one  of  the  best-born  gentlemen  in  the 
province  of  Munster,  who  is  honoured  to  make  }^our 
acquaintance." 

The  stranger  was  a  tall  man,  with  red  hair  and 
whiskers,  blue  eyes,  and  broad  Milesian  features. 
Morty  glanced  at  him,  and  liked  neither  his  look  nor 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OE  DUN  BOY.  375 

the  mystery  about  him.  Still  less  \^  as  he  pleased  at  that 
moment  to  see  his  kinsman,  whom  he  regarded  as  the 
chief  cause  of  his  having  left  the  highwa}-s  of  life  for 
the  tortuous  road  into  which  he  had  fallen. 

The  stranger,  who  saw  that  Morty  was  out  of 
humour  at  som.ething,  put  on  an  easy  air,  and  said  : 

"  It  is  well  pleased  we  are  to  see  }'e  here,  sir,  and 
pleased  at  the  cause  which  has  brought  you  hom.e 
among  us.  We  have  all  heard  what  ye  have  done  in 
the  West  Indies  with  our  poor  people  that  wxre 
working  in  chains  there,  and  how  ye  fought  the  big 
frigate  off  Dursey  yonder,  and  sent  her  home  to  Cork 
Haven  slower  than  she  came.  If  ye  could  hear  how 
the  country  speaks  of  ye,  ye  would  be  a  proud  man 
this  day  !  " 

"  The  frigate  was  well  handled,  sir,''  Morty 
answered  coldly,  "  and  if  we  escaped  it  was  more  by 
luck  than  skill  !     But  you  have  something  to  say  to 

me,  Mr. ?     And   I  will  be  glad  to  hear  it,  for  my 

time  is  short." 

"  You  may  call  me  O'Brien,  sir,  for  want  of  a  worse 
name,"  the  stranger  said.  "  There  is  good  blood 
among  the  O'Briens,  anyway,  and  the  best  of  it  runs 
in  my  own  veins.  We  mean  you  well,  and  we  hope 
you  will  mean  well  by  us,  but  you  are  rather  short  in 
your  speech.  Mr.  Connell  here  brought  us  word  from 
ye,  that  ye  would  like  to  know  what  we  are  prepared 
to  do  if  the  French  ships  at  Brest  should  be  seen  in 
our  waters.  Well,  I'll  tell  ye  !  Right  welcome 
will  be  the  sight  of  them  !  Not  an  Irish  heart  in  the 
Four  Counties  but  will  feel  the  French  are  the  best 
friends  that  are  left  to  Ireland  in  all  the  world  !  " 

"  I  can  believe  that,"  replied  Morty,  "  but  it  is  not 
what  I  have  been  sent  to   learn.     It  has  been  repre- 


376  THE   TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY 


sented  in  Paris  that  if  M.  Thurot's  squadron  appears 
off  this  coast  and  lands  two  or  three  regiments,  you 
have  fifty  thousand  men  ready  to  join  at  a  day's 
notice.     Is  that  so  ?  " 

"  Indeed,  and  it  is  !  It  is  not  fifty  thousand  nor 
a  hundred  thousand.  It  is  all  Catholic  Ireland  that 
will  join — every  mother  s  son  of  them  !  " 

"  Every  mother's  son  cannot  be  put  in  the 
field  to  fight.  The  English  have  twelve  thousand  red 
coats  in  the  island,  besides  the  gentry  and  their 
servants,  and  the  Protestants  in  the  North.  Can  you 
produce  fifty  thousand  men,  drilled,  who,  if  Thurot 
lands,  can  march  at  once  to  support  him  ?  " 

"  We  have,  sir,  and  more  !  Who  knows  it  better 
than  King  Louis,  who  has  the  Brigade  with  him  ? 
And  didn't  they  beat  the  English  at  Fontenoy  ?  " 

"  You  mean  that  Thurot  is  to  bring  the  Brigade 
with  him  ?  "  Morty  said, 

"  Sure,  and  of  course  that  is  what  we  mean," 
ans\\'ered  the  stranger.  "  And  what  else  would  \\^ 
we  mean  ?  Aren't  they  the  flower  of  us  all  ?  And 
haven't  we  sent  them  over  to  learn  their  trade  and  be 
fit  for  fighting  when  the  day  comes  for  it  ?  Our  poor 
people  at  home  are  just  peasants,  and  how  would 
they  be  able  to  fight  ?  They  can  make  the  country 
hot  for  the  Protestant  gentlemen,  but  that  is  all  they 
are  fit  for.  Let  the  King  send  the  Brigade  over,  and 
twenty  thousand  Frenchmen  at  the  back  of  them,  and 
then  he  should  see  what  we  could  do  !  There  would 
not  be  a  Protestant  left  alive  in  the  Island  a  month 
after  !  " 

"  I  can  believe  that,  also,  Mr.  O'Brien,  or  whatever 
your  name  may  be,"  said  Morty.  "  But  no  such  force 
is  likely  to  be  sent !     They  require   to  know,  in  case 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  377 

M.  Thurot  throws  a  small  division  of  French  troops 
on  shore  in  Bantry  Bay  or  the  Kenmare  River,  what 
number  of  men  the  Irish  can  bring  into  line  at  once 
at  immediate  call  ?  Arms  have  been  sent.  Officers 
have  been  sent.  Money  has  been  sent.  What  ha\'e 
you  to  show  ?  Can  you  produce  fifty  thousand  men  ? 
Can  you  produce  five  thousand  men  ? — or  five 
hundred  ? — or  one  hundred  ?  " 

"  You  are  hard  on  me,  Mr.  O'SuUivan  !  You  are 
one  of  ourselves,  and  you  might  know  by  this  time 
that  we  have  tried  that  way  long  enough,  and  that  we 
find  others  answer  better  !  " 

"  Too  well  I  know  that,"  said  Morty,  "  and  I  know 
what  has  come  of  it.  By  no  advice  of  mine  shall 
French  soldiers  set  foot  on  this  soil  !  And  though  it 
is  my  own  soil,  and  though  I  would  live  and  die  for 
it,  if  there  was  a  spark  of  generous  manhood  left  in 
the  people,  I  will  not  mislead  those  who  trust  me. 
Fight  the  battle  your  own  way,  and  with  your  ov/n 
weapons.     I  will  meddle  with  you  no  more  !  " 

"  Sure  it  is  joking  you  are,  Morty,"  Sylvester  said, 
"  or  the  black  dog  has  bitten  you.  You  talked  that 
way  years  past  at  Nantes,  when  Mr.  Blake  put  the 
work  on  you,  and  may  be  you  had  reason  then,  with 
the  peace  and  all.  But  now,  with  the  war  back 
again,  and  the  old  enemy  with  his  hands  full  the 
world  over,  and  the  French  on  the  seas  and  ready  and 
willing  to  help— Is  it  you,  Morty,  that  will  be  hinder- 
ing them  }  What  hurt  have  the  English  been  able  to 
do  to  yourself  for  all  their  power  ?  You  slip  through 
their  hands  like  a  merrow,  and  for  each  blow  the}^ 
give  you,  you  give  them  two  in  return.  In  Dublin 
Castle  they  are  shaking  as  if  the  fit  was  on  them.  The 
gentry  of  Ireland  and  jjiom^nLondon  are  snarling  at 


3/8  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

each  other  hke  cats,  and  they  come  coaxing  to  us 
CathoHcs,  and  one  or  the  other  will  be  taking  off  the 
Penal  laws.  Small  thanks  to  them  for  that  same.  It  is 
little  we  care,  for  we  will  break  them  off  our  own  necks. 
The  light  of  the  brightest  day  that  ever  dawned  on 
Ireland  is  breaking  over  the  hills,  and  w^ould  you  be 
leaving  us  now,  Morty,  when  If  you  will  stay  and  lead 
the  rising  you  will  be  ruling  again  before  another 
summer  in  your  own  Castle  at  Dunboy,  with  the 
Colonel's  head  on  a  pike  over  the  gateway." 

"  So  you  go  on,"  said  Morty.  "  It  is  the  old  story 
which  we  have  heard  a  thousand  times.  The  light 
breaking  on  the  hills  !  The  better  day  that  is  dawn- 
ing !  I  will  tell  you  what  the  end  will  be  of  such  a 
day.  A  few  hundred  wretched  dupes  will  take  up 
arms,  believing  the  lies  that  are  told  them,  and  then 
some  Cromwell  will  come  and  trample  them  into  mud. 
The  very  schemers  that  lead  them  astray  may  be  are 
selling  them  all  the  time  to  the  Castle.  You  yourself, 
Mr.  Sylvester,  have  played  many  parts  before  this, 
and  who  knows  what  part  you  are  playing  now  ? 
If  you  are  honest,  it  is  the  w^orse  for  your  under- 
standing." 

"  No  thanks  to  you,  Morty,  for  your  suspicions  cf 
an  innocent  m.an,"  answered  his  cousin  with  a  sinister 
twist  in  his  face.  You  might  have  remembered  I 
think  who  it  was  that  spoilt  the  Colonel's  game  for 
him  at  Kilmakilloge,  and  brought  Lord  Kerry's  orders 
to  keep  your  kinsman  at  the  old  place.  May  be  that 
day  at  Derreen  is  no  pleasant  recollection  to  ye, 
Morty  Oge." 

Any  allusion  to  Goring  touched  Morty  to  the 
quick. 

"  I  tell  ye,"  he  said,  "  that  only  for  the  thought  of  that 


thp:  two  chiefs  of  dun  boy.  379 

man  I  would  never  have  seen  Kerry  more  ;  and  that 
you  know  yourself,  Sylvester.  There  was  a  long  score 
between  us  when  ye  came  to  me,  and  there  is  a  longer 
now.  If  I  could  be  brought  to  meet  him  where  none 
could  come  between  us,  I  would  not  ask  to  live 
another  day." 

"  May  be,"  said  the  man  who  called  himself  O'Brien, 
"  we  would  be  able  some  of  us  to  help  you  to  that 
same,  and  I  had  the  purpose  in  m}^  mind  when  I 
came  to  see  you  this  morning.  The  gentlemen  of  the 
county  are  just  wild  about  the  Colonel  bringing  the 
Swaddlers  here,  and  spoiling  the  trade  and  disturbing 
the  quiet.  Devil  a  frigate,  devil  a  revenue  officer 
would  be  plaguing  the  coast  at  all  but  for  the 
Colonel.  We  don't  like  him,  and  that  is  the  truth 
of  it,  and  we  would  have  found  means  among 
us  to  clear  him  out,  but  that  he  is  not  handy  to 
fix  a  quarrel  upon.  The  boys  say  there  is  not  the 
equal  of  him  with  the  sword  in  the  four  provinces,  and 
what  he  can  do  with  the  pistol  you  know  yourself, 
Mr.  Morty.  But  you  are  as  good  a  man  as  he  any  day, 
and  I  can  tell  ye  that  any  one  who  would  put  the 
Colonel  out  of  the  world  would  have  the  thanks  of 
every  gentleman  that  wants  claret  for  his  cellar,  and 
of  every  tenant  that  wants  a  market  for  his  fleeces. 
When  the  Colonel  is  gone  we  may  do  as  we  will,  and 
the  CDast  will  be  our  own  from  Cape  Clear  to  Dingle. 
And  never  fear  there  will  be  any  stir  about  him  at  the 
Castle.     They  like  him  there  as  little  as  we  do." 

A  savage  look  passed  over  Morty's  face,  which 
the  stranger  interpreted  into  encouragement.  "  You 
are  handy  by,"  he  went  on.  "  You  are  not  six 
miles  over  the  hill  from  Dunboy,  and  you  have 
lads   here    that   will  do  your     bidding.      They    say 


38o  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

half  the  people  he  brought  over  have  left  him  and 
gone  to  America.  What  can  hinder  ye  to  slip  over 
the  pass,  catch  the  Colonel  and  the  lave  of  them  in 
their  sleep,  and  make  a  nate  end,  and  be  off  to  sea  by 
the  morning.  There  are  not  many  in  Ireland,  gentle 
or  simple,  but  would  say  you  were  doing  a  good  ser- 
vice in  that  same. 

"  These  gentlemen  of  Ireland  that  the  English  laws 
have  set  to  reign  over  us,  seem  an  interesting  set  of 
beings,"  replied  Morty.  "  There  was  a  story  on  the 
Continent  about  a  Danish  treasure  ship  that  was 
wrecked  on  the  coast  hereabouts.  They  said  that 
squires,  clergy  and  great  ladies  stole  the  cargo  and 
shared  the  plunder.  They  asked  me  over  there  if 
these  were  the  persons  whom  the  English  had  put 
into  Ireland  to  keep  order,  because  we  were  not  able 
to  do  it  ourselves.  And  now  you  say  they  would  like 
me  to  murder — to  murder  I  say,  for  that  is  what  you 
mean — this  Colonel  Goring,  who,  to  give  him  his  due, 
is  one  of  the  best  of  them,  because  he  keeps  their 
brandy  cellars  empty.  Pretty  rulers  they — but,  bad 
though  they  may  be,  I  don't  believe  that  of  them.  You 
are  not  speaking  the  truth." 

O'Brien  flushed  to  the  roots  of  his  hair.  "  Is  it  in- 
sulting me  that  you  would  be,  Morty  Oge  ?  "  he  said, 
"  and  me  a  better  gentleman  than  the  best  O'Sullivan 
of  the  whole  of  ye." 

"  I  will  quarrel  with  any  man,"  said  Morty,  "  who 
proposes  to  me  to  assassinate  a  man  in  his  bed.  I 
am  a  soldier,  sir,  and  not  a  cut-throat.  You  talk  of 
your  country,  and  all  you  want  is  the  smuggling  trade. 
If  I  were  to  do  this  precious  piece  of  service,  which  you 
say  would  be  well  taken,  who  but  you  would  be 
washing  your  hands  at  the  door  of  the  Castle,  and  pre- 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  381 

tending  that  a  pirate  had  done  it  that  came  in  from 
the  sea  ?  You  would  be  sending  up  your  reports  and 
your  regrets,  and  you  would  prate  of  your  loyalty. 
There  would  be  a  price  on  my  head,  and  if  I  was  not 
out  of  the  way  you  would  raise  the  country  to  take 
me  and  hang  me.  I  am  weary  of  the  whole  of  }-ou. 
The  poor  land  is  under  a  curse.  The  sun  will 
never  shine  on  a  free  Ireland  till  she  has  learnt  to 
face  her  conquerors  with  better  weapons  than  the 
murderer's  knife." 

"  You  are  sharp  in  your  words,  Morty,  but  I  must 
not  answer  you  back  as  I  would  if  any  spake  so  but 
yourself.  You  have  lived  so  long  away  from  us  that 
you  don't  know  your  own  people.  We  know^  what 
we  are  about.  Sure  the  English  w^ould  like  nothing 
better  than  that  we  should  face  them  as  ye  call  it. 
That  is  not  the  way  at  all.  We  can't  do  it.  But 
what  we  can  do  is  to  burn  their  houses  and  their 
farms  and  harry  their  cattle,  and  set  the  Whiteboys 
on  them  to  scare  them  in  their  sleep.  Yes,  and  for 
all  ye  say  there  is  the  knife  and  the  pistol  too 
for  them  that  plunder  the  poor  with  their  tithes  and 
their  rack-rents.  They  daren't  do  as  Cromwell  did, 
for  the  world  would  cry  shame  on  them,  and  we  can 
tire  them  out  and  make  them  sick  of  us,  and  then 
may  be  they  will  let  us  drop  at  last." 

"  Go  your  way  then,"  said  Morty,  "  but  it  was 
not  the  way  of  my  fathers,  and  it  is  not  mine 
My  ancestors  held  Dunboy  against  Carew's  cannon. 
The  bones  of  them  lie  buried  under  the  walls,  and 
cowardice  and  ferocity  was  never  laid  to  their  charge. 
You  think  you  can  do  better  for  )'ourself  by  houghing 
sheep  and  cattle.  Well  then,  try  it,  bi  t  don't  ask  me 
to  go  along  with  you,  or  to  bring  the  French  to  help 


382  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUMBO  Y. 

you.  Any  country  may  have  its  liberty,  when  there 
is  manhood  there  that  will  live  free  or  die,  and  no 
country  I  believe,  will  get  much  good  of  its  liberty 
when  there  is  not.  If  you  had  stomachs  to  fight,  I 
would  lead  you,  or  I  would  follow  a  better  leader,  and 
I  would  advise  King  Louis  to  send  every  man  that  he 
could  spare  to  stand  at  your  side.  \  brave  people 
always  wins  in  the  end,  for  it  costs  more  to  hold  them 
than  to  let  them  go." 

"  Ye  have  fine  words  at  your  command,  there  is 
no  denying  that,  Mr.  O'Sullivan,  and  I'll  not  say  but 
ye  can  fight  finely  too,  and  w^elcome  would  be  the  day 
when  we  had  need  of  your  hand  for  that  same.  But  if 
ye  will  help  us  with  the  Colonel,  we'll  ask  no  more  of 
ye  for  this  time.  A  dale  of  blood  would  be  running 
before  we  could  drive  the  red  coats  out,  and  a  dale 
more  would  run  among  ourselves  when  we  had  seen 
the  last  of  them  and  the  land  was  our  own.  Maybe 
we  see  our  way  to  what  would  be  good  for  us  better 
than  yourself  But  wherever  ye  go,  ye  will  be  the 
glory  of  your  countr\%  and  proud  will  we  be  to  hear 
ye  named.  Ye  said  a  hard  word  of  the  gentry  just 
now,  and  ye  will  not  be  far  off  the  truth  as  regards 
the  Protestant  intruders  among  us.  May  the  divil  fly 
away  with  the  last  of  them  !  Til  not  quarrel  with  ye, 
anyway.  Only  well  I  know  ye  would  like  to  clear 
your  account  with  the  Colonel  yonder,  and  your 
friend,  Mr.  Blake,  will  be  a  glad  man  the  day  he 
hears  that  the  Colonel  is  under  the  ground.  Sure  if  ye 
wouldn't  go  in  the  dark  ye  m.ight  take  the  mountain 
boys,  and  we'd  provide  ye  with  a  score  of  wild-geese, 
and  ye  might  just  go  in  the  blessed  sunlight  and 
have  it  out  in  the  fair  fight  that  you  are  so  fond  of 
Ye  will  find  but  a  sprinkling  of  them  left  to  deal  with 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  383 

and  you  owe  them  a  turn  for  that  night's  work  at 
Glengari  ff." 

"  That  would  be  a  brave  day,"  said  Sylvester,  "  and 
well  would  I  like  to  see  the  dawning  of  it.  But  you 
must  mind  what  you  are  about  with  thim  English. 
They  will  take  a  deal  from  us,  and  never  seem  to 
heed  what  we  do,  but  if  we  go  a  step  too  far  they  are 
just  wild,  as  Phelim  O'Neil  found  to  his  sorrow.  We 
may  shoot  a  landlord  or  an  exciseman  or  two,  and  no 
word  said  about  it,  but  if  ye  hurt  the  women  or  little 
ones — and  maybe  some  of  them  w^ould  get  a  stroke 
or  two  if  ye  went  to  work  as  Mr.  O'Brien  proposes — 
or  if  there  is  anything  which  they  could  call  a 
massacre,  they  will  set  the  red  coats  on  us,  and  be 
hanging  and  shooting  our  poor  boys  all  over  the 
Barony.  They  were  talking  of  a  garrison  in  the 
[sland  over  there.  Sure  the  talk  would  be  earnest 
then,  and  that  would  be  the  worst  of  the  whole.  No, 
no  ;  a  house  may  be  burnt,  and  a  man  that  is  under 
the  displeasure  of  high  and  low  may  get  his 
deservings,  and  it  will  be  the  talk  for  a  week  or  two, 
and  no  more  about  it,  but  you  must  respect  the 
customs  of  the  country." 

"  I  tell  you,"  said  Morty,  "  I  will  have  none  of  your 
customs.  You  have  ruffians  enough  of  your  own  to 
do  your  devil's  work  w^ithout  coming  to  me.  Bring 
Colonel  Goring  and  me  where  none  can  inter- 
fere with  us,  and  I  will  thank  any  of  ye.  We  can 
then  settle  our  differences  once  for  all,  and  there  will 
be  an  end.  But  if  I  challenge  him  he  will  only  send 
word  to  Cork  that  I  am  here,  and  every  frigate  on  the 
station  will  be  out  to  seize  me.  Goring  gave  me  my 
life  once,  and  it  shall  never  be  said  that  I  took  him  at 
a  disadvantage." 


384  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

''  Indeed  then,  it's  mighty  particular  you  are,  Morty 
Oge,"  said  Sylvester,  "  and  it  is  little  like  an  honour- 
able man  the  Colonel  would  be  if  he  refused  the 
challenge  of  a  gentleman  that  is  better  born  than  he 
is.  You  forget  what  is  due  to  yourself,  kinsman,  to 
be  condescending  that  way  with  a  thief  that  has 
stolen  the  land  that  belongs  to  \'e.  But  we  love  ye 
the  more  for  it,  and  maybe  we  will  find  the  means  to 
help  you  to  your  wish.  The  Colonel  is  a  trusting 
gentleman,  and  easily  believes  any  tale  that  is 
brought  to  him.  Leave  it  to  me,  and  111  fetch  him 
where  there  shall  be  none  but  your  two  selves  as  ye 
say,  unless  Mr.  Council  and  I  might  be  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood to  see  fair  play." 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

The  world  had  not  mended  with  Colonel  (ioring 
since  his  people  began  to  drift  away  from  him,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  circumstances  would  do  his  enemies' 
work,  and  force  him  out  of  the  country,  vs-ithout 
further  stir  on  their  part.  The  peasantry  of  the 
neighbourhood,  agitated  by  rumours  of  a  French 
landing,  grew  unruly  and  insolent.  Encouraged  by 
the  reduction  of  the  numbers  of  the  settlers,  they 
renewed  the  attacks  on  their  property,  which  had 
been  repressed  sharply  when  first  ventured.  Cattle 
were  again  mutilated  and  fences  broken  down,  and 
corn  stacks  set  on  fire.  The  smuggling  enterprises 
revived  on  a  larger  scale  than  ever,  and  the  colonists, 
harassed  and  dispirited,  were  less  willing  to  lend 
their  help  in  making  seizures.  Fox,  the  minister,  who 
had  remained  as  a  guest  after  the  Primate's  judgment, 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV.  385 

was  cursed  from  the  altar  of  the  adjoining  chapel,  and 
was  warned  to  be  gone.  Loyal  as  the  remnant  had 
seemed  when  their  frienJs  departed,  the  blow  had 
been  none  the  less  serious,  for  instead  of  hope  it  had 
left  despondency.  As  the  annoyances  increased, 
there  was  an  increasing  desire  to  follow  them. 
Special  diseases  are  generated  by  peculiar  conditions. 
The  colony  of  Dunboy  was  sickening  of  the  same 
disorder  which  liad  carried  off  the  successive  groups 
of  Protestants  who  had  been  established  in  the  South 
of  Ireland.  The  climate  was  not  favourable,  and 
they  withered  in  the  uncongenial  air. 

The  seceders  who  had  departed  first,  had  been 
those  who  were  most  strongly  under  religious  im- 
pressions. Their  example  and  their  influence  being 
removed,  the  rest  fell  off  from  the  austere  habits  which 
had  distinguished  them  all  at  the  beginning.  They 
were  not  dissolute  or  immoral,  but  they  were  more 
like  ordinary  men.  How  they  thought  and  felt 
might  be  perceived  in  a  fragment  of  a  conversation 
between  a  party  of  them  one  evening  after  work. 

"  Well,  master,"  said  a  big  miner  from  Liskeard, 
named  Treherne,  "  I  don't  know  how  it  strikes  you, 
but  for  my  part  I  don't  like  the  look  of  things,  and  I 
shall  clear  out  before  long.  I  have  saved  a  little 
money,  and  I  shall  take  the  wife  and  the  young  ones 
home,  before  worse  comes  of  't.  We  have  had  no 
luck  since  the  rest  went  off",  and  in  my  mind  we  shall 
not  mend." 

"  True  enough,"  said  a  young  fisherman,  "  things  are 
not  as  they  were,  and  I  don't  rightly  know  the  mean- 
ing of  it.  But  the  Colonel  and  his  lady  have  been 
good  friends  to  me  and  mine,  and  I  will  not  leave  the 
ship  at  the  first  touch  of  bad  weather.     He  is  a  good 

25 


386  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


man,  is  the  Colonel.  He  tries  to  do  his  duty  to  his 
Master,  and  I  will  do  mine  to  him." 

"  And  get  your  head  broken  for  your  pains,  as  you 
did  last  year  at  Glengariff,"  sneered  the  miner.  "  We 
came  here  to  get  a  living  by  our  work.  What  had  we 
to  do  with  fighting  and  quarrelling,  and  making  the 
people  hate  us?  If  they  chose  to  run  a  keg  or  two 
of  brandy  to  keep  their  stomachs  warm  in  this 
precious  climate,  it  is  no  more  than  the  lads  do  at 
home." 

"  You  came  here  with  your  eyes  open,  Dick,"  said 
another.  "  Twas  part  of  the  bargain  you  signed  with 
the  Colonel,  to  help  him  in  the  revenue  work.  You 
have  made  a  good  bit  of  money  out  of  the  mine  ;  you 
don't  deny  that,  and  you  must  take  the  rough  with 
the  smooth.  For  my  part,  I  would  stay  willingly 
enough,  if  they  had  not  shut  the  school  up.  I  don't 
w^ant  children  of  mine  to  grow  up  ignorant  Heathens, 
or  Papists,  which  is  worse." 

"No  fear  of  that,"  answered  Treherne.  "  The  last 
of  us  will  be  gone  out  of  this  place  before  any  child  of 
yours  or  mine  will  lose  his  soul  among  these  savages. 
The  Colonel  thinks  he  can  make  them  mend  their 
ways.  I'd  as  soon  think  to  make  a  nigger  into  a 
white  man,  or  one  of  those  cannibals  that  the 
voyagers  write  of,  into  a  Christian.  What  was  the 
first  thing  I  saw  this  morning  ?  Tom  Pollen's  red 
cow  roaring  about  the  field  with  her  tail  sheared  off 
at  the  stump,  and  the  white  heifer  lying  on  the  grass 
with  the  sinews  of  her  hind  legs  cut  through.  Things 
can't  go  on  in  this  way.  I  would  shoot  the  skulking 
rascals  like  so  much  vermin,  if  the  Colonel  would  allow 
it.  But  he  won't.  Well,  then  live  and  let  live.  He 
can't  stand   by  himself,  and   the   Government   won't 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  387 

stand  by  him,  nor  anybody  else  that  I  see.    The  whole 
of  us  had  better  clear  out." 

More  clearly  than  any  of  his  people,  Goring  himself 
saw  whither  he  was  drifting.     Fitzherbert,  after  stay- 
ing half-a-year  with  him,  had  gone  at  last.     He   had 
done  his  best  to  persuade  him  to  abandon  a  hopeless 
enterprise,  and  to  leave  the  country.  But  to  this,  Goring 
would  answer   that  God   had   placed   him   there,   and 
that  he  must   remain  at   his   post  till  he  was  relieved  ; 
and  there   w^as  no  more   to  be  said.     Only  many   an 
anxious   conversation   passed  between  him    and    the 
companion  of  his  life  on  their  changing  outlook.      No 
clamorous  peasants  any  longer  brought  theircomplaints 
to   his  hall-door  in  the   mornings  ;  no   children  with 
scalded  legs  were  brought  to  the  house  for  the  mistress 
to  mend  them.    The  greetings  on  the  roads  which  used 
to  be  kindly,  were  exchanged  for  a  look  of  unfriendly 
recognition,  while  the   nightly  outrages  shewed   that 
the  worst  spirit  was  abroad.     The  Colonel   still  went 
about  unarmed.     To  carry  pistols,  he  said,  would  not 
diminish  any  danger  which   there   might  be,  and  he 
had  an   objection  to  shooting  people   himself,  which 
perhaps  he  might  do  if  he  was  attacked.     But  he  also 
felt  that '  he   could   not   keep   English  families   about 
him     whom    he    could    not   protect,  while   he    could 
not   allow    them    to    take   the    law    into   their   own 
hands.     Specially  he  felt  that  Dunboy  w^as  no  longer 
a  fit  place   for  women,  and  he   proposed  to  send   his 
wife  away  to  Cork  again.     To  this  she  had   answered, 
that  if  it  was  not  a  fit  place  for  her,  it  was  not  fit  for  the 
families  of  the  miners  and   fishermen.     Enthusiastic 
as  her  husband,  but  with  clearer  judgment,   she  saw 
that  their  experiment  had  failed,  or,  as  the  first  seceders 
expressed  themselves,  that  it  was  not  God's  will  that 

25* 


388  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

it  should  prosper.  "If  you  stay,  and  the  rest  stay,  I 
must  stay,  too,"  she  said.  "  But  surely  we  have  done 
enough.  Let  us  go  home  together.  We  have  fought 
a  good  fight,  and  if  we  have  not  succeeded,  the  fault 
is  not  with  us  or  with  our  people.  We  have  still 
money,  God  be  praised.  Wliy  persist  in  useless  efforts 
to  improve  a  race  which  will  not  be  improved  on 
our  pattern,  or  to  serve  a  Government  which  neither 
helps  nor  thanks  you." 

To  these  arguments  constantly  repeated,  the  Colonel 
could  but  answer  as  he  had  answered  Fitzherbert, 
that  God  had  put  him  where  he  was,  and  had  given 
him  a  duty  to  do.  If,  as  he  hoped,  he  was  one  of 
God's  servants,  he  must  take  the  work  which  was 
allotted  to  him.  Absenteeism  had  been  the  curse  of 
Ireland.  Providence  had  given  him  an  estate  there, 
and  he  must  reside  upon  it,  come  what  would.  He 
admitted,  however,  that  there  would  have  to  be  a 
change  of  some  kind  ;  and  one  Saturday  at  the 
beginning  of  March,  when  the  week's  work  was  over, 
he  called  his  people  together  to  address  them  on  the 
situation.  Since  the  failure  of  his  appeal  to  the  Dub- 
lin Courts,  the  chapel  at  the  house  had  been  closed. 
The  congregation  had  chosen  one  of  themselves  to 
read  and  explain  the  Bible  to  them,  and  they  met  at 
each  other  s  houses,  out  of  sight  and  below  the  notice 
of  any  one  inclined  to  inform  against  them.  Goring 
and  his  family,  with  a  few  of  the  rest,  \\\\o  had  not 
seceded  from  the  Establishment,  used  to  go  on  Sundays 
to  the  church  at  Glengariff.  On  this  occasion  he 
invited  them  all  to  meet  him  at  the  old  place.  The 
bell  woke  from  its  long  silence.  The  hall,  for  it  was 
but  a  hall  after  all,  soon  filled  to  overflowing,  for  the 
hearts  of  the  people  were  full,  and  they  knew  that  the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  389 

master  himself  meant  to  speak  to  them.  Every  mem- 
ber of  the  little  colony  that  could  be  spared  from 
home  was  present,  men,  women,  and  children,  well- 
dressed,  decent,  and  respectful,  even  the  discontented 
among  them,  like  old  Treherne,  for  all  loved  the 
Colonel ;  all  felt  that  never  in  theii  lives  elsewhere 
had  they  fallen  in  with  a  man  who  might,  if  he  had 
pleased,  have  lived  in  luxury  and  security,  and  had 
chosen  to  expose  himself  to  so  many  dangers  and 
difficulties,  because  he  believed  it  to  be  right.  The 
priest  had  long  since  forbidden  his  own  flock  to  go 
near  the  Colonel's  meeting-house,  yet  even  of  these, 
one  or  two  had  looked  in,  who  had  not  forgotten  his 
kindness,  who  still  regarded  him  with  a  kind  of  loyalty 
as  the  owner  of  the  land,  and  who  wished  to  hear  ^^'hat 
he  had  to  say. 

This  time  there  was  no  service.  The  chapel  had 
become  only  a  room.  But  the  link  which  held  the 
Colonel  and  his  people  together  was  in  their  common 
faith.  He  knew  that  many  of  the  best  and  simplest 
of  them  were  perplexed  at  the  withholding  of  the 
help  from  Providence  for  which  they  thought  that 
they  might  have  looked,  and  to  this  very  natural 
feeling  he  wished  to  address  himself.  When  they 
were  all  collected,  he  came  forward  on  the  platform, 
and  said  : 

"  You  and  I,  my  friends,  believe  with  all  our  hearts, 
that  God  is  a  living  God.  He  is  no  Idol,  but  the 
actual  living  ruler  of  this  world.  This  is  the  basis  on 
which  we  build  our  own  lives.  Yet  Psalmists  and 
Prophets — and  not  they  only,  but  perhaps  every  man 
and  woman  who  has  tried  to  do  God's  will — have 
been  staggered  by  His  apparent  indifference,  and  have 
cried  out  in  their  perplexity — '  where  is  God  ?      We 


390  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY . 

have  never  seen  Him — we  have  seen  no  signs  of  Him  ; 
there  is   one    event    to   the    good  and   the  evil  ;    oh 
that   He   would   rend   the  heavens  and  come  down  ! 
Oh  that  He  would  but  shew  Himself  for  one  moment, 
and  assure   us  by  definite   proof,  that   He    is    really 
there.'     The  soldier,  on  a  campaign,  loses  his  heart,  if 
his  General  hides  himself  in  his  tent.     One,  greater 
than  the  saints,  cried  out  upon  the  cross,  that  He  was 
forsaken.     And  this  is  the  feeling  of  all  persons,  in  the 
bottom  of  their  hearts,  who  have  been  trying  hard  to 
do  right,  and  find  circumstances  too  strong  for  them. 
They  are  apt  to  fancy  that  if  God  was  really  on  our 
side,  it  could  not  be  so.     They  will  allow  it  to  be  true 
that  God   has   never  promised   success — that  is,  out- 
ward and  worldly  success — to  those  who  give  them- 
selves up  to   His   service.      He   has   promised   them 
rather    mortification     and     suffering,     and     apparent 
failure.     But  no  one  entirely  believes  that,  in  his  own 
case.     He  can  understand   the   misfortunes  of  other 
people.      He  feels  no  surprise  when  he  reads  what  has 
happened  to  saints  and  martyrs.     He  can  admire  the 
ways   of  Providence,  which  has   used  their  sufferings 
as  a  witness  for  the  truth,  and  not  against  it.     But 
when  the  trial  comes  home  to  himself,  he  is  generally 
puzzled  and  distressed.     And  something  of  this  kind 
is  very  likely  passing  through  the  minds  of  many  of 
you  who  are  listening  to  me.     You  came  to  Ireland 
at  my  invitation,  to  work  with  me  on  an  estate  which 
I  had   not  sought,   which  God's  Providence  gave   to 
me.    We  have  taken  nothing  from  any  man  ;  we  have 
cultivated   land    which    was    lying   barren  ;    we    have 
caught  fish  which,  but  for  us,  would  have  been  left  in 
the   sea  ;    we   have   raised   metals,   which   were   lying 
untouched   in    the   earth  ;    we   have   brought   wealth 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  391 

where  before  there  was  poverty  ;  we  have  introduced 
order  and  law  ;  we  have  set  an  example  of  industry; 
we  have  injured  no  one,  and  we  have  helped  all  who 
would  take  help  at  our  hands — yet  no  one  has  stood 
by  us,  no  one  has  encouraged  us.  Those  who  ought 
to  have  been  our  friends  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
us  ;  we  have  enemies  all  round,  and  we  cannot  go 
about  our  daily  labour  without  danger.  You  will 
naturally  ask  yourselves  why  you  ought  to  persevere 
any  longer  in  a  thankless  struggle  ?  Last  year,  it  was 
borne  in  upon  many  of  our  number,  that  they  had  a 
call  elsewhere,  and  their  letters  tell  us  that  they  are 
prosperous  and  happy  in  the  new  land  that  they  have 
chosen.  You  have  stayed  by  me,  and  I  have  been 
touched  with  your  affection  and  fidelity.  But  have  I 
a  right  to  ask  you  to  remain  any  longer  ?  I  myself 
have  no  choice.  God  has  placed  me  here,  and  here  I 
must  continue  till  I  am  called  away.  You  have  no 
such  call.  To  you  it  is  open  to  choose  whether  you 
will  face  the  dangers,  which  I  do  not  conceal  from 
you  that  I  believe  to  be  increasing,  or  whether  you 
will  go  home,  or  will  follow  your  friends  to  New 
England.  Here,  you  are  an  unprotected  outpost  in 
an  enemy's  country.  The  Government  does  not  sup- 
port us — we  are  left  to  remain,  if  we  please,  on  our 
own  risk  and  responsibility.  For  me,  I  have  an 
assurance  within  me  that  I  am  where  I  ought  to  be — 
doing,  or  trying  to  do,  what  my  conscience  orders  me. 
I  may  lose  my  life.  To  be  ready  to  face  death,  is  a 
condition  of  a  soldier's  service,  and  I  cannot  find  a 
more  honourable  end.  But  this  does  not  apply  to 
you  ;  and,  if  you  choose  to  stick  by  me,  it  must  be 
with  your  eyes  open.  The  Roman  Emperor,  when 
his   small   army   was   surrounded    by   multitudes    of 


392 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 


Africans,  did  not  make  light  of  the  peril,  but  ex- 
aggerated and  insisted  upon  it,  and  then  said  that  if 
any  wished  to  leave  him,  they  might  go,  and  he  would 
provide  them  with  a  passage.  I  repeat  that  for  any, 
and,  if  you  please,  for  all  of  you,  vessels  shall  be  pro- 
vided, at  my  expense,  to  carry  you  where  you  may 
desire.  Go,  then,  you  who  prefer  to  go  and  follow 
your  friends — and  stay,  you  that  will  stay.  The  Lord 
can  save  by  few,  as  well  as  by  many.  Three  hundred 
men  alone  were  left  to  Gideon  to  encounter  the 
Midianites,  but  the  three  hundred  were  enough. 
Those  were  days  of  miracles,  and  there  are  no 
miracles  now.  But  we  know,  what  Gideon  did  not 
know,  of  how  little  consequence  is  anything  which 
may  befall  us  in  this  world.  I  cannot  prophesy  what 
may  happen  to  you  or  to  me.  But,  well  assured  I 
am,  that  no  honest  work  which  we  may  do  in  this 
world  is  lost  in  the  end— and  that  nothing  which  we 
suffer  will  be  thrown  away.  The  battles  of  the  Lord 
are  but  as  other  battles.  The  bra\-est  and  best  may 
fall,  but  their  lives  are  the  price  of  victory." 

So  spoke  Colonel  Goring  :  the  enthusiasm  of  faith 
being  tempered,  in  him,  into  quiet  and  calm  con- 
viction. But  he  did  not  expect  heroic  virtues  from 
miners  and  fishermen.  Emotion  may  lift  even  the 
com.monest  men,  for  moments,  into  self-forgetful- 
ness  ;  and  conscience,  and  shame  and  pride  may 
hold  them  up  where  the  voice  of  duty  is  plain. 
But  instinct  tells  every  child  of  Adam  to  withdraw 
himself,  and  those  dear  to  him,  out  of  the  way 
of  perils  which  he  may  think  that  he  is  not 
called  upon  to  face,  and  Goring  would  neither 
have  been  surprised,  nor  been  much  disappointed, 
if  his   offer    had    been     closed    with     on    the    spot. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  393 

DoubtlesSj  many  of  those  who  heard  him  did  feel 
that  they  would  gladly  be  out  of  the  scrape,  and 
home  in  Cornwall  again.  Their  prospect  of  high 
wages  and  prosperity  was  gone,  unless  their  labour 
and  lives  were  protected  ;  and  the  Colonel's  lan- 
guage, on  these  points,  had  not  been  consoling. 
Some,  who  were  earnest  Christians,  believed  that  they 
were  going  the  wrong  way  to  work,  that  Ireland  was 
still  but  a  half-conquered  country,  and  that,  if  it  was 
to  be  civilized  after  the  English  pattern,  the  sword 
must  go  before  the  Evangel,  as  in  Cromwell's  time- 
Personal  admiration  for  their  Chief,  however,  deter- 
mined them — at  least  for  the  moment — to  continue 
to  share  his  fortunes.  They  could  not  believe  that, 
after  all  which  it  had  cost  England  to  plant  Protestant 
colonies  in  Ireland,  they  would  be  deliberately  sacri- 
ficed. Those  who,  like  Treherne,  were  disaffected,  found 
it  prudent  to  be  silent  ;  not  a  single  family  confessed 
to  irresolution  ;  and  when  the  assembly  broke  up, 
there  was  an  unusual  display  of  animation  and  affec- 
tion. Their  spirit  rose.  That  some  sixty  Englishmen, 
well  armed  and  drilled,  and  with  an  English  garrison 
in  the  same  county,  should  be  in  personal  danger 
from  a  rabble  of  savages  whom  they  despised,  was 
absurd  and  incredible.  If  only  they  were  left  free  to 
use  their  weapons,  the  Irish  might  hate  them  as  much 
as  they  pleased. 

So  talking  among  themselves  they  Vv-ent  their 
several  ways,  a  few  loiterers  only  being  left  who 
had  special  communications  to  make  or  questions  to 
ask.  A  stranger  who  had  been  in  the  chapel, 
came  up  to  Goring,  as  he  was  standing  at  the  door, 
and  said  : 

"  The  Lord  bless  your  honour  this  day,  and  a  good 


394  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

day  it  is  for  Ireland  to  see  your  honour  and  the  likes 
of  ye  in  the  midst  of  us  !  The  Lord  prosper  ye,  and 
grant  ye  long  life,  yourself  and  your  good  lady,  to 
reign  in  Dunboy  !  It  is  cutting  our  own  throats  we'd 
be,  or  star\ing  for  hunger,  if  ye  were  taken  away  ! 
And  if  your  honour  is  tould  that  there  is  any  here 
that  would  do  ye  hurt — barring  a  few  skulking 
villains  that  we'll  have  out  of  this,  or  know  the  reason 
for  it — don't  believe  them,  your  honour  !  They  are 
telling  ye  a  lie  !  " 

Such  effusive  expressions  from  a  person  whom  he 
could  not  recall  that  he  had  ever  seen  before,  struck 
the  Colonel  as  excessive.  He  knew  Ireland  by  this 
time,  and  knew  what  such  vehement  protestations 
were  worth.  Some  request  or  other  usually  followed, 
and  it  seemed  to  him  that  there  was  to  be  something 
of  the  same  kind  in  this  case.  The  man  professed  to 
have  a  communication  to  miake  to  him  of  an  urgent 
kind,  and  begged  for  a  private  interview. 

Colonel  Goring  reserved  his  Saturday  evenings  for 
himself  as  a  preparation  for  Sunday,  and  was  besides 
affected  by  the  scene  which  he  had  just  passed 
through.  He  required  to  know  on  the  spot  what  the 
business  was.  The  stranger  would  say  nothing,  sa\'e 
that  it  was  an  affair  of  life  and  death.  It  was  neces- 
sary for  him  to  see  some  magistrate  at  once,  and  the 
Colonel  was  the  only  magistrate  within  reach. 

Some  caution  was  observed  in  admitting  persons 
who  were  not  known.  The  man  was  introduced  into 
the  hall,  and  two  of  the  water-guard  were  directed  to 
stand  outside  at  the  door.  Colonel  Goring  then 
looked  at  his  visitor  more  particularly.  He  was  a 
man  advanced  in  years,  dressed  in  the  grey,  coarse 
frieze  of  the  country,  with  the  common   expression  of 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  395 

innocent  helplessness,  which  is  not  always  a  true  in- 
dication of  the  character  behind  it.  His  coat  was  in 
holes  ;  his  breeches  were  untied  at  the  knees  ;  his 
stockings  were  torn,  and  his  shoes  stringless.  His  hair 
was  matted  and  grey,  and  he  had  green  wandering 
eyes,  which  looked  everywhere  save  at  the  person  to 
whom  he  was  speaking.  From  such  a  figure  nothing 
important  seemed  likely  to  come,  but  Ireland  was  a 
strange  country,  and  the  Irish  \\'ere  a  strange  people. 

"  Well,  man,"  said  Goring,  you  say  that  you  have 
business  with  me  ?  Who  are  you  ?  And  what  do 
you  want  ?  " 

The  stranger  rubbed  his  head,  glanced  vacantly 
round  the  hall,  and  dangled  his  hat  in  his  hand. 
"  I'm  a  poor  boy,  your  honour,  from  beyant  Bantry 
towards  Dunmanway,  if  your  honour  would  be  pleased 
to  give  me  a  help  !  " 

"  Give  you  a  help  ?  "  the  Colonel  said.  "  There  are 
boys  enough,  and  men  and  v.omen  too,  for  that 
matter,  that  want  help,  and  some  deserve  it  and  some 
don't.  But  you  told  me  you  had  come  on  a  matter  of 
life  and  death — whose  life  and  whose  death  ?  " 

"  It  is  hard  to  know  your  honour  who  is  living  and 
who  is  dead  in  this  distracted  country,  and  in  some 
parts  there  is  little  to  choose  between  them,  and  a 
short  step  from  one  to  the  other.  There  has  been 
wild  work  up  yonder  with  the  proctors  and  the  rest 
of  it  !  " 

"  A  tithe  riot  again  ? "  said  the  Colonel,  whose 
attention  was  caught  in  a  moment  by  his  recollection 
of  the  scene  on  the  mountains.  "  But  why  do  you 
come  to  me,  five  and  twenty  miles  away  ?  Why 
didn't  you  go  to  Mr.  White  at  Bantry  ?  He  has 
charge   of  the   district,    and   has   the    force    of   the 


396  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

county  with  him.     What  are  you  yourself,   and   what 
have  you  to  do  with  it  ?  " 

"  Sure,  your  honour,  Mr.  White  is  not  in  the 
countr}^  at  ah.  He  is  gone  to  England  they  say,  and 
there  is  none  but  yourself  that  we  have  to  look  to, 
more  by  token  that  }-our  honour  is  a  good  Protestant, 
and  there  is  mighty  i^w  of  us  that  way  in  this  land  !  " 

"  A  Protestant  are  you  ? "  said  Goring,  looking 
again  sharply  at  him.  "  You  don't  seem  a  credit  to 
your  profession.  These  disturbances  are  no  affair  of 
mine,  unless  they  happen  in  my  own  barony ;  and 
I  don't  care  how  little  I  am  concerned  in  other 
people's  business.  But  speak  out  !  Tell  me  what 
has  happened  ! " 

"  Your  honour  is  a  good  friend  to  the  poor,  and 
there  is  no  wonder  if  )-e  care  to  hear  as  little  as  ye 
can  of  thim  proctors.  But  it  is  not  them  that  does 
the  wrong  that  feels  the  worst  smart  of  it.  When 
the  childer  are  starving  the  fathers  are  just  mad. 
They  are  like  dogs  driven  wild,  your  honour,  and  bite 
at  whatever  is  nearest  them.  ]\Iy  poor  master  that 
has  the  church  on  the  way  from  Bantry  to  Dunman- 
v/ay — the  Lord  be  good  to  him  ! — he  is  just  destroyed 
entirely,  and  the  Lord  knows  whether  the  life  is  in 
him  at  this  hour,  and  he  as  poor  as  the  \^-orst  of  them  ! 
No  food  better  than  the  potatoes  and  the  milk  has 
crossed  the  lips  of  him  this  twelvemonth  !  'Tis  truth 
I  am  telling  your  honour,  and  the  Lord  knows  it !  " 

"  I  can  make  nothing  of  this,"  said  the  Colonel, 
growing  impatient.  "  Sit  down,  man,  and  tell  me  your 
story  from  the  beginning.  Some  crime  has  been  com- 
mitted. The  curate  at  the  Cross  Roads,  my  friend  Mr. 
Dudgeon,  has  been  injured,  I  suppose.  But  how,  and 
w^hy,  and  when  ?  " 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  397 

"  It  is  the  same  good  gentleman  that  your  honcur 
speaks  of ;  and  it  is  I  that  am  all  the  servant  that  he 
has  to  look  after  the  cow  and  the  bit  of  garden  and 
ring  the  church  bell  on  Sundays  !  It  is  but  two 
shillings  a  week  he  gives  me  for  that  same,  and  he 
can  afford  no  more,  with  his  children  running  about 
without  shoes  to  their  feet,  and  his  own  clothes  hang- 
ing in  rags  upon  him  ! " 

"  Tell  your  story  your  own  way,  my  good  fellow," 
said  the  Colonel,  "  only  tell  it  I  can  do  nothing  till  I 
know  what  is  the  matter." 

"  Well,  then,  I'll  tell  your  honour,  and  no  more 
words  about  it.  Your  honour  knows  we  are  a 
poor  people  up  there.  Papists  and  Protestants  are 
poor  enough  for  that  matter,  all  Ireland  over,  and  we 
have  hard  masters  upon  us.  Your  honour  has  learnt  by 
now  how  many  pounds  the  acre  they  take  for  our  bits 
of  land  for  the  potatoes.  There  is  the  agent,  and  the 
leaseholder,  and  the  leasholder  that  is  beyond  him, 
and  another  below,  or  may  be  two,  and  the  poor  boy 
that  works  the  ground  must  keep  the  whole  of  them, 
with  my  lord  that  lives  in  England  besides  them 
all.  The  divil  knows  how  they  part  it  among 
themselves,  but  the  boys  must  find  it,  and  how  are 
they  and  their  families  to  live  at  all,  your  honour, 
let  alone  the  pig?  And  that  is  not  the  worst,  for 
when  the  rint  is  paid,  the  rector  of  the  parish  must 
have  his  tenth  bag  of  potatoes,  and  the  tenth  sheep, 
and  the  tenth  of  the  pig's  litter.  The  rector  himself 
is  the  Dane  of  the  Cathedral  with  the  roof  oft^  the 
top  of  it,  and  he  has  six  other  parishes  besides,  and 
never  a  church  in  any  one  of  the  seven  save  the 
little  chapel  at  the  Cross  Roads,  and  never  a  curate 
but  Mr.  Dudgeon,    that    has    twenty    pounds   a   year 


398  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

from  him,  and  mighty  generous  he  thinks  he  is  for 
that  same.  He  is  a  fine  preacher  in  London,  they 
say,  and  he  keeps  a  Proctor  in  each  of  his  parishes,  and 
five  shilHngs  by  the  }^ear  he  gives  them,  and  they 
squeeze  the  rest  of  their  Hving  out  of  the  poor  people, 
who  have  to  keep  their  own  Priest  besides,  for  fear 
the   divil  get  them  at  the  last  day." 

There  vras  a  scornful  tone  in  the  account  of  the 
Rector  and  his  London  occupations,  which  did 
not  suit  exactly  with  the  account  which  the 
man  had  given  of  himself  or  with  his  abject 
appearance.  Again  Colonel  Goring  examined  his 
face,  and  for  a  moment  fancied  that  he  had  seen  it 
somewhere  before  ;  but  his  recollections  failed  him  ; 
the  impression  passed  off,  and  the  vacant  look 
returned.  Colonel  Goring  knew  too  well  the  general 
truth  of  the  picture  to  suspect  on  that  account  the 
honesty  of  the  person  that  described  it.  But  he  was 
as  far  away  from  the  point  as  ever.  "  All  this  may 
be  true  my  man,"  he  said,  "  but  what  has  this  to  do 
with  the  story  you  have  come  to  tell  me  ?  What 
has  been  done  at  the  Cross  Ways?  " 

"  Is  it  not  telling  your  honour  that  I  am,  as  fast 
as  my  tongue  can  out  with  it  ?  Your  honour  knows 
that  last  year  was  a  short  harvest,  and  the  landlords 
and  the  agents  all  the  country  over,  barring  your 
honours  self,  would  abate  nothing,  and  would  have 
the  last  farthing,  or  the  tenants  should  be  out  in  the 
road ;  and  the  poor  people  didn't  know  where  to 
turn,  the  liltle  ones  crying  for  food  and  none  to  give 
them.  Then  came  up  lawyers  from  Cork  for  the 
clergy,  and  they  cleared  away  the  lave  of  the  male 
and  the  potatoes.  So  the  people  went  clane  mad, 
and  the  Whiteboys  were  out  to   find  the  villains,  and 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  399 

they  could  find  none  of  tJiem,  for  sure  they  had  gone 
av.av  witli  what  they  had  got  as  if  the  divil  was 
at  the  heels  of  them.  So  the  boys  came  to  Mr.  Dud- 
geon's house,  who  had  done  no  harm  to  mother's  son. 
But  what  did  the  bloody-minded  ruffians  care  for  that  ? 
They  said  if  he  hadn't  done  it,  them  as  he  served 
had  done  it.  'Twas  for  the  Protestant  Church  they 
were  all  robbed  and  murdered.  So  they  up  with 
him  out  of  his  bed,  your  honour,  his  wife  lying  by 
the  side  of  him,  and  she  screeching,  and  the  boys 
swearing  they  would  make  an  end  of  her  if  she 
didn't  hould  her  tongue,  and  they  stripped  off  Mr. 
Dudgeon's  shirt  and  laid  him  on  his  face  on  the 
floor  naked  as  he  was.  They  tied  his  arms  and  his 
legs.  They  brought  a  great  Tom  cat  and  set 
it  on  the  back  of  him,  and  they  dragged  the 
baste  up  and  down  by  his  tail,  the  cat  scratching, 
and  spitting,  and  driving  the  claws  of  him  into  the 
poor  gintleman's  flesh  till  it  was  all  as  if  they  had 
drawn  a  harrow  over  him.  Some  of  them  thought 
this  enough,  and  would  have  spared  him  more. 
But  the  black  heart  was  in  the  most  of  them,  and 
the}'  said  they  would  have  his  life  before  they  gave 
up.  So  they  took  him  out  into  the  bog  and  dug  a 
pit,  and  laid  the  bottom  of  it  with  thorns,  and  flung 
him  in  naked  as  he  was  on  the  top  of  them.  Thin 
for  fear  he  should  catch  could,  as  they  ^aid,  they 
heaped  in  more  briars  and  faggots  round  him,  just 
leaving  his  head  out  and  no  more.  They  trampled 
them  ail  in  till  he  neither  spoke  nor  stirred.  This 
done,  they  locked  the  rest  of  us  in  the  house  and 
swore  we  should  all  die  if  we  looked  out  before  the 
morning.  So  they  left  us  and  went  their  ways. 
The  poor  lady  was  almost  dead  with   it.     When  the 


400  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

day  broke  we  went  out  and  we  found  the  master. 
We  thought  he  was  gone,  for  he  was  covered  over 
with  blood,  and  he  spoke  never  a  word.  But  there 
was  Hfe  in  him  yet,  and  we  put  him  in  his  bed,  and 
the  lady,  she  crying  and  beside  herself  like,  bade  me 
go  to  your  honour  and  tell  you  how  it  was,  and  to 
pray  your  honour  if  it  was  likely  you  would  be  at 
Glengariff  Church  the  next  morning  to  ride  on  to 
the  Cross  Ways  and  do  what  you  could  to  help 
them." 

In  any  country  but  Ireland  such  a  story  would 
have  been  regarded  as  a  wild  imagination.  But 
Colonel  Goring  knew  from  his  own  experience  what 
the  people  among  whom  he  lived  were  capable  of 
when  driven  to  fury  about  tithes,  and  he  knew  also 
that  the  unfortunate  curates  were  too  often  made 
the  scapegoats  on  whom  the  popular  rage-  was 
expended.  He  could  not  say  that  such  a  thing  could 
not  have  happened.  He  cross-questioned  his  visitor 
up  and  down  as  to  when  or  how  it  had  all  been.  He 
liked  neither  the  man's  look  nor  his  manners.  But 
he  could  detect  no  inconsistencies,  and  the  tale  held 
well  together.  The  wretched  old  fellow  admitted 
that  he  had  been  too  much  frightened  himself  to 
attempt  to  defend  his  master.  He  had  kept  out  of 
sight  because,  as  he  said,  they  would  have  been  un- 
marciful  to  him  as  a  Protestant  convert.  His  frank 
confession  of  cowardice  was  an  evidence  in  his  favour. 
Goring  was  acquainted  with  the  spot  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood, and  slightly  with  Mr  Dudgeon  himself, 
who  was  a  hard-working  and  half-starved  curate. 
Other  magistrates  lived  nearer  to  the  scene  of  the 
outrage  than  himself;  but  some,  he  was  aware, 
were  absent,  and  the  one  or  two  that  were   resident 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  401 

exerted  themselves  as  little  as  possible  in  the  interests 
of  the  poorer  clergy.  The  information  was  so  expHcit 
that  he  felt  that  he  ought  not  to  neglect  it.  His 
habit  was  to  go  to  Glengariff  for  service  on  Sunday 
morning,  with  as  many  of  his  people  as  would  accom- 
pany him,  and  Glengariff  was  on  the  way,  and  more 
than  half  the  distance.  Should  the  story  be  true, 
and  he  had  no  reason  to  suppose  it  false,  he  would 
never  forgive  himself  should  the  unfortunate  man  be 
dead,  as  was  too  likely,  and  if  he  had  neglected  to  go 
to  the  help  of  the  unhappy  widow  and  her  children. 

Nothing  could  be  done  that  night.  They  usually 
went  to  Glengariff  by  water,  as  the  easiest  and  quickest 
mode  of  getting  there,  but  he  would  require  a  horse 
for  the  rest  of  the  way.  The  service  being  at  twelve 
too,  he  reflected  that  if  he  waited  till  it  was  over  he 
would  not  have  time  to  reach  the  Cross  Roads  and 
return  before  nightfall.  He  therefore  decided  that  he 
would  ride  forward  early  and  alone.  At  Glengariff  he 
would  hear  further  particulars.  Some  report  or  other 
would  have  reached  the  people  there,  unless  the  whole 
story  was  a  fiction,  and  he  could  imagine  no  reason 
why  such  a  tale  should  have  been  invented.  To  tell 
lies  might  be  natural  enough  to  the  Irish  character, 
but  they  would  be  lies  with  a  purpose,  and  in  this 
instance  no  purpose  was  conceivable.  If  nothing 
was  known  at  Glengariff,  he  would  then  attend  church 
as  usual,  and  return. 

The  man,  having  walked  all  day,  as  he  said,  pro- 
fessed to  be  tired,  and  required  a  few  hcurs'  rest. 
Colonel  Goring  offered  him  supper,  but  he  declined 
to  eat,  having  been  well  fed,  as  he  alleged,  at  a  cabin 
on  the  road-side.  He  desired  only  to  be  allowed  to 
lie  down  for  a  bit.    A  bed  of  straw  in  the  loft  over  the 

26 


402  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

stable  would  answer  him  well,  and  he  could  be  off 
on  his  way  before  daybreaV  without  disturbing  the 
famil}^ 

It  all  seemed  straightforward,  and  yet  Goring  knew 
that  the  Irish  were  the  best  actors  in  the  world. 
There  was  something  about  the  man  not  satisfactory 
to  him  ;  nor  could  he  shake  off  the  impression  that 
somewhere  under  some  circumstances  he  had  seen  that 
face  before.  He  was  not  of  a  nature,  however,  to  be 
deterred  from  doing  what  he  thought  right  by  \-ague 
misgivings.  He  would  not  alarm  his  wife  by  a  horrible 
story.  He  told  her  merely  that  he  was  obliged  to  be 
early  at  Glengariff  the  next  morning.  He  would  ride 
forward,  and  she  could  follow  with  the  rest  in  the  boat. 
The  horse  was  ordered.  The  stranger  was  given  his 
straw  bed  in  the  stable  ;  the  Colonel's  habit  also  was 
to  go  to  rest  early  ;  but  the  frightful  character  of  the 
country  in  which  his  lot  was  cast,  had  been  freshly 
brought  home  to  him,  and  disinclined  him  to  sleep. 
He  sat  long  gazing  out  of  his  window  on  the  sea,  his 
eyes  following,  half  unconsciousl}',  the  patches  of 
moonlight  between  the  shadows  of  the  clouds.  His 
rule  on  Saturday  evenings  was  to  touch  no  worldly 
business,  and  to  spend  an  hour  or  t\vo  always  in 
meditation.  But  his  thoughts  wandered.  He  could 
not  fix  his  attention  as  he  desired.  Either  mechani- 
call\-,  or  because  he  wished  to  occupy  himself,  he 
arranged  his  papers,  made  a  few  notes,  and  wrote  re- 
plies to  letters  which  needed  answers.  He  lay  down 
at  length  to  toss  uneasily  through  the  midnight  hours, 
to  fall  at  last  into  broken  snatches  of  slumber,  and  to 
dream  that  he  was  at  Culloden  again.  When  he 
awoke,  the  sun  was  shining  over  the  crest  of  Hungry 
Hill.     It  was  later  than  he  expected.      He  hurried  on 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  403 

his  clothes,  snatched  a   hasty  breakfast,  mounted  his 
horse  and  rode  away. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

On  the  road  to  Glengariff,  near  the  sea,  and  at  no  very 
great  distance  from  the  gate  of  the  avenue  which  led 
to   Dunboy,  there  stood  a  blacksmith's  shop.      The 
blacksmith  himself,  Minahan   by  name,  was  a  tenant 
on  the  estate.  He  was  a  native  of  the  place,  and  a  Ca- 
tholic ;  but  he  w^as  a  good  workman  when  he   cared 
to  be  industrious  ;  and  Colonel  Goring  had  provided 
him  with  so  much  employment  that  he  was  seldom 
idle.       He  mended  chains,  forged  anchors,  made  ring- 
bolts  and   elects  for  the   boats,  repaired  carts,  ham- 
mered picks  and  crowbars  for  the  miners,  and  helped 
the  engineers  when  the  machinery  fell  out  of  order. 
His    manner     was    sullen.       He    seldom     asked    a 
question,    and   when  he    was    questioned   himself  he 
answered  no  more   than   was   necessary.     Goring  on 
the    whole    liked    him    because    he     neither    lied  nor 
cringed,  and   because  he  did   his  work  satisfactorily. 
But  the  acquaintance   had  not  passed   into   intimacy. 
When  there  was  a  wheel  to  be  mended,  or  a  horse  to 
be  shod,  Minahan  was  always   ready  to  do  it,  and  be 
paid  for  it.     Such  as  he  was  there  was  no  one  else  of 
his    trade   in   the   neighbourhood,   so  that  there   was 
constant  intercourse  between  him  and  the  Colonel's 
people.     His    connection   with  them    was  a  business 
one,    and    he    seemed    to    decline    all  more    friendly 
relations.     If  he  showed   no   good-will,  however,    he 
showed  no  malice.     If  silent,  he  was  never  disrespect- 
ful.     As  a  tenant  he  paid  his  rent  regularly,  and  if  he 

26* 


404  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

wanted  repairs  or  improvements  at  his  house  or  forge, 
the  Colonel  was  always  ready  to  execute  them.  He 
was  a  tall,  lean  man,  strong  and  sinew}-,  with  dark- 
matted  hair,  face  and  hands  scarred  and  seamed  by 
sparks  from  the  anvil,  and  his  left  eye  injured  through 
the  same  cause. 

Before  daylight,  on  the  morning  which  followed  the 
events  related  in  the  last  chapter,  a  fishing  lugger 
came  round  Dursey  Island,  and  ran  up  into  Bantry 
Bay.  Under  Fair  Head  she  reduced  her  canvas,  and 
brought  up  behind  the  hill.  With  the  first  streak  of 
dawn  a  six-oared  cutter,  which  she  had  towed  astern, 
left  her  side  and  pulled  in  towards  the  island.  In  the 
dress  of  her  crew  there  was  nothing  particular  to 
attract  attention  ;  they  rowed  well  and  shewed  that 
they  understood  their  business  ;  but  except  that  it  was 
unusual  for  a  boat  to  be  out  at  that  hour  on  a  Sunda) 
morning,  they  might  have  passed  for  local  fishermen. 
There  was  no  one,  however,  to  ask  what  they  were,  or 
even  to  see  them.  At  Dunboy  all  was  quiet ;  the 
herring  boats  were  drawn  up  on  the  shingle,  thcii 
owners  with  their  families  sleeping  late  on  the  one 
holiday  of  the  week.  The  strangers  whoever  they 
might  be,  knew  the  habits  of  the  place,  for  they  pulled 
across  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  and  entered  a  creek 
covered  by  a  ledge  of  rocks,  a  short  walk  from  Mina- 
han's  forge.  Two  men  wrapped  in  boat  cloaks  who 
had  been  sitting  in  the  stern  rose  as  they  toujched 
ground,  and  stepped  ashore.  One  was  slight  and  ol 
middle  height,  the  other  tall  and  powerfully  built 
Under  their  cloaks  it  could  be  seen  that  both  of 
them  were  armed.  They  had  their  swords,  skencs 
at  their  belts,  and  pistols  handsomely  mounted,  with 
barrels  chased  and   inlaid.     The  shorter  of  the  two 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  405 


ordered  one  man  to  stay  in  the  boat  and  the  rest  to 
follow  him.  They  then  went  on  together  to  the  road. 
The  sun  was  still  below  the  horizon,  and  no  one  was 
abroad.  The  forge  had  been  closed  for  the  night,  but 
the  blacksmith  himself  was  stirring.  He  had  thrown 
back  one  of  the  shutters,  and  the  door  was  ajar 
which  led  from  the  outside  shed  into  the  workshop. 
He  showed  no  surprise  at  the  appearance  of  his 
visitors,  whom  he  evidently  expected. 

"Is  Sylvester  here  ? "  the  short  man  asked. 

Minahan  nodded,  and  pointed  to  the  open  door. 
They  entered,  and  found  there,  waiting  for  them,  the 
so-called  servant  of  the  curate  at  the  Cress  Ways. 

"  Welcome  are  ye,  Morty  Oge,"  said  Sylvester  to 
Sullivan,  for  he  it  was.  "  It's  in  fine  time  ye  are.  The 
Colonel  will  not  be  here  for  an  hour  yet,  but  ye'll  see 
him  at  the  end  of  it ;  and  he  will  be  stopping  here 
of  himself  at  the  forge,  if  there  is  faith  in  a  nail  and  a 
horse's  sore  foot." 

"  And  what  was  the  need  of  hurting  a  dumb  beast  ?" 
said  Morty.  "  Ye  are  always  after  some  devilry  or 
other.  You  told  me,  as  it  was  Sunday  morning,  he 
would  be  going  by  to  his  church  ;  and  what  would  be 
easier  than  for  the  boys  with  me  to  bring  him  to  a 
halt  ?  " 

"  I  couldn't  chance  it,"  said  S}'lvester.  "  I'd  be 
sorry  anything  went  wrong,  and  yourself  going  away, 
and  this  the  last  occasion  ye'd  have.  You  may  place 
the  boys  behind  a  rock  that's  there  a  few  yards  down, 
if  it  should  so  be  that  he  rides  by  ;  but  he  will  not, 
Devil  fear  it.  Ye  see  I  could'nt  trust  to  the  church- 
going.  One  time  he  goes  by  the  water,  and  another 
by  the  land — and  if  he  goes  by  the  land  he  has  always 
a  parcel   of  the  Swaddlers  about  him,  so   I  thought 


4o6  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

I'd  take  a  surer  way  with  him.  The  Colonel  is  of  a 
free  nature  if  any  story  is  brought  him  of  some  one 
that  wants  his  help.  So  I  made  up  a  tale  of  how  the 
Dunmanway  boys  were  out  about  the  tithes,  and  how^ 
they  had  carded  the  curate  beyont,  and  left  him  for 
half  dead,  and  how  the  wife  was  crying  out  for  his 
honour  to  come  and  save  the  poor  cratur's  life  if  any 
life  was  in  him." 

"  You  are  a  treacherous  villain,  Sylvester  ;  but  it 
must  pass  for  this  time.  I  mean  the  Colonel  no 
wrong.  He  shall  have  fair  play  as  a  gentleman,  and 
that  is  all  that  he  has  a  right  to  ask  for.  Are  you 
sure  he  did  not  recognize  you  ?  " 

"  Troth,  and  he  did  not.  He  never  saw  me  but  onst, 
the  day  at  Derreen,  )^ou'll  remember.  I'll  tell  you  how 
it  was,"  Sylvester  said.  "  But  I'll  just  place  the  boys 
behind  the  rock  I  spoke  of,  for  fear  he   might  pass." 

"  And  tell  them,"  said  Morty,  "  that  they  are  to  stop 
him,  and  no  more  ;  and  tell  them,  too,  that  the\'  are 
to  stay  where  they  are  till  I  come  for  them.  It  shall 
never  be  said  that  I  took  unfair  advantage." 

S}'lvester  muttered  an  unwilling  assent.  He  went 
out,  and  in  a  few  minutes  returned,  and  went  on  with 
his  story. 

"  Ye'd  not  have  known  me  yourself  in  these  old  rags, 
and  it  is  odd  if  I  could  not  desave  an  Englishman  ; 
let  alone  the  Colonel,  that  is  the  simplest  of  the  whole 
of  them.  Tell  the  Colonel  ye  come  from  the  moon, 
and  he  will  believe  ye  if  ye  say  ye  are  a  Protestant. 
He  will  be  on  the  road  by  the  time  the  sun  is  over 
the  hill.  He  wall  come  to  a  halt  at  this  door,  or  I 
know  nothing  of  farriery,  and  devil  a  servant  he  will 
have  behind  him  either,  or  so  much  as  a  pistol  to 
defend  himself." 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BO  Y.  407 

"  You  may  set  so  many  traps  that  you  will  be 
caught  yourself  one  day,  Sylvester.  How  do  you 
know  that  he  will  be  unarmed  ?  How  do  you  know 
that  he  will  have  no  one  with  him  ?  How  do  you 
know  that  he  will  ride  at  all  with  the  tide  flowing  and 
the  water  smooth  ?  " 

"How  do  I  know?"  Sylvester  answered.  "It  has 
been  my  business  to  mark  the  Colonel  since  he  came 
into  this  country.  He  will  be  unarmed,  because  he 
goes  unarmed  always.  I  suppose  he  cut  down  so 
many  poor  creatures  at  Culloden  that  he  is  feared  at 
the  sight  of  blood.  He  don't  like  to  shoot  any  man, 
as  ye  have  experienced  yourself,  Morty  Oge.  He 
will  have  none  with  him,  because  he  will  never  take  a 
servant  out  on  the  '  Sabbath  Day,'  as  thim  Swaddlers 
call  it  ;  and  as  to  the  boats  they  are  to  go  later  with 
the  lady,  and  the  Colonel  will  ride.  They  put  me  for 
the  night  into  the  stable,  and  I  got  talking  with  the 
groom  that  was  there.  He  show^ed  me  the  horses,  as 
I  knew  he  would,  and  I  just  asked  him  which  of  them 
it  was  that  the  master  rode  when  he  went  upon  his 
arrants  of  mercy.  What  did  the  innocent  cratur  say 
but  that  it  was  sometimes  one  and  sometimes  another. 
It  would  be  the  grey,  however,  that  he'd  ride  in  the 
morning,  for  that  was  the  horse  he  had  ordered.  So 
when  all  was  shut  up,  and  the  key  turned  in  the  stable 
door,  I  just  slipped  down  the  ladder  out  of  the  garret 
above.  There  was  a  bit  of  candle  left  in  the  lantern, 
and  I  had  all  I  needed  in  the  pocket  of  me.  I  diew" 
a  nail  from  the  shoe  of  the  near  hind  foot  and  slipped 
in  a  longer  one  in  the  place  of  it.  The  point  will  have 
run  into  the  quick  before  the  Colonel  has  been  half  a 
mile  on  the  road.  He  will  see  Minahan  standing  at 
the  door  here,  and  he  will  want  to  know  what  is  the 


4o8  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


matter.     Devil  a  step  further  will  his  purty  grey  go 
with  him  till  the  nail  is  out." 

"Well,  well,"  said  Morty,  "  such  doings  may  seem 
fair  in  this  accursed  country.  We  were  a  brave  people 
once,  and  did  not  stoop  to  cowardly  tricks,  that  would 
suit  better  with  forgers  and  footpads.  Colonel  Goring 
is  the  worst  foe  I  have  ;  )'et  I  would  give  a  finger  oft^ 
my  right  hand  at  this  moment  had  no  lies  been  told 
to  bring  him  here  to  meet  me.  On  my  soul  I  hate 
3-0U  for  what  }'ou  have  done,  Sylvester.  There  is  a 
stain  on  my  honour  this  day  which  all  the  waters  of 
ocean  will  not  wash  off.  Any  way,  this  shall  be  the 
last  of  such  things.  This  English  Colonel  and  I  have 
our  quarrel  to  fight  out,  and  one  or  other  of  us  will 
not  leave  this  place  alive.  If  I  fall  death  clears  all, 
and  I  charge  \'ou  both  on  m}^  curse  that  he  goes  free, 
and  )-ou  do  him  no  wrong.  If  I  kill  him  I  leave 
Ireland  this  day,  never  to  see  it  more  till  the  time 
comes,  if  ever  it  does  come,  when  I  can  return  with 
the  gallant  Brigade.  But  that  time  is  not  yet.  If  the 
French  broke  our  chains  we'd  be  none  the  better  for 
it,  the  slaves  and  cowardly  traitors  that  too  many  of 
us  are  still." 

Morty  was  savage  at  finding  that  he  could  not 
even  fight  a  personal  enemy  in  his  unfortunate 
country,  without  being  dragged  into  treachery  that  he 
hated  the  thought  of.  As  little,  however,  did  it  occur 
to  him  that  he  ought  not  to  use  an  opportunit}- 
which  had  been  dishonestly  brought  about  for  him.  In 
the  midst  of  his  excitement,  his  ear  was  caught  by  a 
voice  outside  in  the  road.  Colonel  Goring  was  before 
the  door  of  the  smithy.  His  horse  was  dead  lame. 
The  nail  in  the  foot  had  been  driven  home,  as 
Sylvester  intended,  and  the  poor  beast,  having  limped 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  409 


for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  had   come   to  a  stand  at  the 
place  where  it  knew  that  the  hurt  could  be  looked  to. 

Minahan  was  leaning  against  the  post  of  the  outer 
shed.  "  Good  morning,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  I  am 
lucky  at  fmding  you  at  home.  Your  fire  will  be  out, 
but  perhaps  there  will  be  no  need  of  it.  My  horse 
here  is  dead  lame.  I  am  sorry  to  ask  you  to  touch 
work  on  Sunday.  I  should  not  be  out  myself,  but 
that  it  is  matter  of  necessity.  Look  and  see  what  is 
the  matter." 

"  Pleased  I'll  be  to  serve  your  honour,  any  day  of 
the  week,"  said  the  blacksmith,  "  and  indeed  there  is 
Gospel  order  to  take  care  of  the  poor  animals  on  the 
Sunday." 

The  Colonel  alighted.  Minahan  lifted  and  ex- 
amined the  foot.  "  Begorrah  !  "  he  said,  "  it  is  little 
the  lad  knew  of  his  work  that  fitted  this  shoe  on. 
Shame  on  the  awkward  hand  of  him,  he  has  driven  a 
nail  into  the  quick,  and  the  dumb  baste  is  complain- 
ing of  it  in  the  only  way  that  he  can  speak.  I'll  have 
it  out  in  five  minutes,  but  I'd  advise  your  honour  to 
take  the  horse  no  further  this  da\%  for  the  wound  is 
sore,  and  maybe  he'd  be  the  worse  for  the  journey." 

"  I  cannot  stop,"  the  Colonel  said,  ''  but  if  ye  have 
a  gossoon  about,  who  would  run  back  to  the  house, 
and  tell  the  groom  to  bring  me  another  and  take  the 
grey  home  when  you  have  seen  to  the  hurt,  I'd 
thank  you  kindly.  Meantime  it  is  cold,  standing  out 
here.  The  air  is  raw  this  morning.  I  will  step  in, 
and  ask  how  the  mistress  is." 

"Thanks,  your  honour,"  said  Minahan.  "The 
mistress  is  not  at  home.  She  is  away  over  the  hill  ; 
and  I'm  thinking,"  he  muttered,  dropping  his  voice,  "  it 
might  be  better  if  your  honour  would  let  the  busines 


4IO  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOV. 

ye  are  after  just  wait  over  till  to-morro^^',  and  go 
back  to  your  own  house.  There  are  strangers  inside, 
that  maybe  ye  would  not  be  well  pleased  to  see." 

"Strangers?"  enquired  the  Colonel.  "What 
stranger  can  be  here  at  such  an  hour  as  this  ?  " 

*  Indeed,  it  is  more  than  I  know,"  said  the  smith. 
'  There  is  three  of  them  come  in  from  the  sea,  any 
way,  to  hear  mass  at  the  chapel  they  say.  They  just 
asked  me  to  let  them  rest  here  till  the  bell  rings,  and 
that  is  all  I  can  tell  you." 

"  Not  all  that  you  might  tell  me,  if  you  chose  to 
speak,  my  good  fellow.  They  will  be  some  of  my 
old  acquaintances,  come  for  once  on  an  honest 
errand.  If  they  had  never  come  on  a  worse,  they 
and  I  would  not  have  fallen  out  together." 

The  smith  muttered  something,  which  was  neither 
assent  nor  denial.  He  had  led  the  horse,  while  they 
were  speaking,  out  of  earshot  of  the  forge.  In  a  low, 
but  clear  and  earnest  voice,  he  said,  "If  ye  will  take 
a  poor  man's  counsel,  ye  will  be  off  at  your  best 
speed,  and  never  stop  till  ye  reach  your  own  door. 
The  gossoon  shall  bring  your  horse  behind  ye." 

Fatally  mistaking  what  was  intended  for  a  friendly 
warning,  the  Colonel  conceived  that  there  was  some- 
one in  the  forge  whom  the  smith  wanted  to  conceal. 

"  I  may  return  or  not,"  he  said,  "  but  I  must  first 
have  a  word  with  these  strangers  of  yours.  We  can 
meet  as  friends  for  once,  with  nothing  to  dispute 
over." 

Minahan  made  no  further  attempt  to  prevent  him 
from  going  in.  If  gentlemen  chose  to  have  their 
quarrels,  he  muttered  between  his  teeth,  it  was  no 
business  of  his. 

Goring  pushed  open  the  door  and  entered.     By  the 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  411 

dim  light,  for  the  shutter  that  had  been  thrown  back 
had  been  closed  again,  and  the  only  light  came  from 
a  window  in  the  roof,  he  made  out  three  figures 
standing  together  at  the  further  end  of  the  forge,  in 
one  of  whom,  though  he  tried  to  conceal  himself,  he 
instantly  recognized  his  visitor  of  the  previous  evening. 

"  You  here,  my  man  ? "  he  said.  "  You  left  my  house 
two  hours  ago.  Why  are  you  not  on  }'Our  way 
home  ?  " 

Sylvester,  seeing  he  was  discovered,  turned  his  face 
full  round,  and  in  a  voice  quietly  insolent,  replied, 
"  I  fell  in  with  some  friends  of  mine  on  the  road. 
We  had  a  little  business  together,  and  it  is  good  luck 
that  has  brought  your  honour  to  us  while  we  are 
talking,  for  the  jintlemen  here  have  a  word  or  two 
they  would  like  to  be  saying  to  ye.  Colonel,  before  ye 
leave  them." 

"  To  me  !  "  said  Goring,  turning  from  Sylvester  to 
the  two  figures,  whose  faces  ^^•ere  still  covered  by 
their  cloaks.  *'  If  these  gentlemen  are  what  I 
suppose  them  to  be,  I  am  glad  to  meet  them,  and 
will  hear  willingly  what  they  may  have  to  say." 

"  Perhaps  less  willingly  than  you  think,  Colonel 
Goring,"  said  the  taller  of  the  two,  who  rose  and 
stepped  behind  him  to  the  door,  which  he  closed  and 
barred.  Goring,  looking  at  him  with  some  surprise, 
saw  that  he  was  the  person  whom  he  had  met  on  the 
mountains,  and  had  afterwards  seen  at  the  funeral  at 
Derreen.  The  third  man  rose  from  a  bench  on 
which  he  had  been  leaning,  lifted  his  cap,  and  said, 
"  There  is  an  old  proverb,  sir,  that  short  accounts 
make  long  friends.  There  can  be  no  friendship 
between  you  and  me,  but  the  account  between  us  is 
of  very  old   standing.      I   have   returned  to   Ireland, 


412  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

only  for  a  short  stay  ;  I  am  about  to  leave  it,  never 
to  come  back.  A  gentleman  and  a  soldier,  like  your- 
self, cannot  wish  that  I  should  go  while  that  account 
is  still  unsettled.  Our  fortunate  meeting  here  this 
morning  provides  us  with  an  opportunity." 

It  was  Morty's  voice  that  he  heard,  and  Morty's 
face  that  he  saw  as  he  became  accustomed  to  the 
gloom.  He  looked  again  at  the  pretended  messenger 
from  the  carded  curate,  and  he  then  remembered  the 
old  Sylvester  who  had  brought  the  note  from  Lord 
Fitzmaurice  to  the  agent  from  Kenmare.  In  an 
instant  the  meaning  of  the  whole  situation  flashed 
across  him.  It  was  no  casual  re-encounter.  He  had 
been  enticed  into  the  place  where  he  found  himself 
with  some  sinister,  and  perhaps  deadly,  purpose.  A 
strange  fatality  had  forced  him  again  and  again 
into  collision  with  the  man  of  whose  ancestral  lands 
he  had  come  into  possession.  Once  more,  by  a 
deliberate  and  treacherous  contrivance,  he  and  the 
Chief  of  the  O'Sullivans  had  been  brought  face  to 
face  together,  and  he  was  alone,  without  a  friend 
Vv'ithin  call  of  him,  unless  his  tenant,  who  as  he  could 
now  see  had  intended  to  give  him  warning,  would 
interfere  further  in  his  defence.  And  of  this  he  knew 
Ireland  well  enough  to  be  aware  that  there  was  little 
hope. 

He  supposed  that  they  intended  to  murder  him. 
The  door,  at  which  he  involuntarily  glanced,  was 
fastened  by  this  time  with  iron  bolts.  He  was  a  man 
of  great  personal  strength  and  activity,  but  in  such  a 
situation  neither  would  be  likely  to  avail  him.  Long 
inured  to  danger,  and  ready  at  all  moments  to  meet 
whatever  peril  might  threaten  him,  he  calmly  faced 
his  adversary  and  said  : 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  413 

"  This  meeting  is  not  accidental,  as  you  would  have 
me  believe.  You  have  contrived  it.  Explain  your- 
self further." 

"  Colonel  Goring,"  said  Morty  Sullivan,  "  you  will 
recall  the  circumstances  under  which  ^ve  last  parted. 
Enemy  as  you  are  and  al\\ays  have  been  to  me  and 
mine,  I  will  do  you  the  justice  co  say  that  on  that 
occasion  you  behaved  like  a  gentleman  and  a  man 
of  courage.  But  our  quarrel  was  not  fought  out. 
Persons  present  interfered  between  us.  We  are  now 
alone,  and  can  complete  what  was  then  left  un- 
finished." 

"Whether  I  did  well  or  ill,  sir,"  the  Colonel 
answered,  "  in  giving  you  the  satisfaction  which  you 
demanded  of  me  at  the  time  you  speak  of,  I  will  not 
now  say.  But  I  tell  you  that  the  only  relations  which 
can  exist  between  us  at  present,  are  those  between  a 
magistrate  and  a  criminal  who  has  forfeited  his  life. 
If  you  mean  to  murder  me,  you  can  do  it  ;  you  have 
me  at  advantage.  You  can  thus  add  one  more  to 
the  list  of  villainies  with  which  you  have  stained  an 
honourable  name.  If  you  mean  that  I  owe  you  a 
reparation  for  personal  injuries,  such  as  the  customs  of 
Ireland  allow  one  gentleman  to  require  from  another, 
this,  as  you  well  know,  is  not  the  way  to  ask  for  it. 
But  I  acknowledge  no  such  right.  When  I  last  en- 
countered you  I  but  partly  knew  you.  I  now  know 
you  altogether.  You  have  been  a  Pirate  on  the  High 
Seas.  Your  letters  cJf  marque  do  not  cover  you,  for 
you  are  a  subject  of  the  King,  and  have  broken  your 
allegiance.  Such  as  you  are,  you  stand  outside  the 
pale  of  honourable  men,  and  I  should  degrade  the 
uniform  I  wear  if  I  were  to  stoop  to  measure  arms 
with  you." 


414  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


The  sallow  olive  of  Morty's  cheek  turned  livid.  He 
clutched  the  bench  before  him,  till  the  muscles  of  his 
hands  stood  out  like  knots  of  rope. 

"  You  are  in  my  power,  Colonel,"  he  said,  "  do  not 
tempt  me  too  far.  If  my  sins  have  been  many,  my 
wrongs  are  more.  It  must  be  this  or  worse.  One 
word  from  me  and  you  are  a  dead  man." 

He  laid  four  pistols  on  the  smith's  tool  chest. 
"  Take  a  pair  of  them,"  he  said.  "  They  are  loaded 
alike.  Take  which  you  please.  Let  us  stand  on  the 
opposite  sides  of  this  hovel,  and  so  make  an  end.  If 
I  fall,  I  swear  on  my  soul  you  shall  have  no  hurt  from 
any  of  my  people.  My  friend  Connell  is  an  officer  of 
mine,  but  he  holds  a  commission  besides  in  the  Irish 
Brigade.  There  is  no  better-born  gentleman  in 
Kerry.  His  presence  here  is  your  sufficient  security. 
You  shall  return  to  Dunboy  as  safe  from  harm  as  if 
you  had  the  Viceroy's  body-guard  about  you,  or  your 
own  boat's  crew  that  shot  down  my  poor  fellows  at 
Glengariff.     To  this  I  pledge  you  my  honour." 

"  Your  honour  !  "  said  Goring.  "  Your  honour  ! 
And  you  tempted  me  here  by  a  lying  tale,  sent  by 
the  lips  of  yonder  skulking  rascal.  That  alone,  sir, 
were  there  nothing  else,  would  have  sufficed  to  show 
what  you  are." 

A  significant  click  caught  the  ear  of  both  the 
speakers.  Looking  round,  they  saw  Sylvester  had 
cocked  a  pistol. 

"  Drop  that,"  said  Morty,  "  or  -by  God  !  kinsman  of 
mine  though  you  be,  I  will  drive  a  bullet  through  the 
brain  of  you.  Enough  of  this,  sir,"  he  said,  turn- 
ing to  Goring.  "  Time  passes,  and  this  scene  must 
end.  I  would  have  arranged  it  otherwise,  but 
you   yourself   know   that   by  this   way  alone  I  could 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY.  415 

have  brought  you  to  the  meeting.  Take  the  pistols  I 
say,  or  by  the  bones  of  my  ancestors  that  lie  buried 
under  Dunboy  Castle  yonder,  I  will  call  in  my  men 
from  outside,  and  they  shall  strip  you  bare,  and  score 
such  marks  on  you  as  the  quarter-master  leaves  on 
the  slaves  that  you  hire  to  fight  your  battles.  Prince 
Charles  will  laugh  when  I  tell  him  in  Paris  how  I 
served  one  at  least  of  the  hounds  that  chased  him  at 
Culloden." 

The  forge  in  which  this  scene  was  going  on  was 
perfectly  familiar  to  Goring,  for  he  had  himself 
designed  it  and  built  it.  There  was  the  ordinary 
broad,  open  front  to  the  road,  constructed  of  timber, 
which  was  completely  shut.  The  rest  of  the  building 
was  of  stone,  and  in  the  wall  at  the  back  there  was 
a  small  door  leading  into  a  field,  and  thence  into  the 
country.  Could  this  door  be  opened  there  was  a 
chance,  though  but  a  faint  one,  of  escape.  A  bar  lay 
across,  but  of  no  great  thickness.  The  staple  into 
which  it  ran  was  slight.  A  vigorous  blow  might 
shatter  both. 

Sylvester  caught  the  direction  of  Gorings  eye, 
caught  its  meaning,  and  threw  himself  in  the  way. 
The  Colonel  snatched  a  heavy  hammer  which  stood 
ap-ainst  the  wall.  With  the  suddenness  of  an  electric 
flash  he  struck  Sylvester  on  the  shoulder,  broke  his 
collar-bone,  and  hurled  him  back  senseless,  doubled 
over  the  anvil.  A  second  stroke  catching  the  bar 
in  the  middle,  shattered  it  in  two,  and  the  door  hung 
upon  the  latch.  Morty  and  Connell,  neither  of 
whom  had  intended  foul  play,  hesitated,  and  in 
another  moment  Goring  would  have  been  free  and 
away.  Connell,  recovering  himself,  sprang  forward 
and   closed  with  him.     The   Colonel,  who   had  been 


4i6  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


the  most  accomplished  wrestler  of  his  regiment, 
whirled  him  round,  flung  him  with  a  heavy  fall  on 
the  floor,  and  had  his  hand  on  the  latch,  when,  half 
stunned  as  he  was,  Connell  recovered  his  feet,  drew 
?.  skene,  and  rushed  at  Colonel  Goring  again.  So 
sudden  it  all  was,  so  swift  the  struggle,  and  so  dim 
the  light,  that  from  the  other  end  it  was  hard  to  see 
what  was  happening.  Wrenching  the  skene  out  of 
Connell's  hands,  and  with  the  hot  spirit  of  battle  in 
him,  Colonel  Goring  was  on  the  point  of  driving  it 
into  his  assailant's  side.  "  Shoot,  Morty  !  shoot,  or  I 
am  a  dead  man  !  "  Connell  cried. 

Morty,  startled  and  uncertain  what  to  do,  had 
mechanically  snatched  up  a  pistol  when  Sylvester  was 
struck  down.  He  raised  his  hand  at  Connell's  cry. 
It  shook  from  excitement,  and,  locked  together  as  the 
two  figures  were,  he  was  as  likely  to  hit  friend  as  foe. 
Again  Connell  called,  and  Morty  fired  and  missed, 
and  the  mark  of  the  bullet  is  still  shown  in  the  wall 
of  the  smithy  as  a  sacred  reminiscence  of  a  fight  for 
Irish  liberty.  The  second  shot  went  true  to  its  mark. 
Connell  had  been  beaten  down,  though  unwounded, 
and  Goring's  tall  form  stood  out  above  him  in  clear 
view.  This  time  Morty's  hand  did  not  fail  him.  A 
shiver  passed  through  Goring's  limbs.  His  arms 
dropped.  He  staggered  back  against  the  door,  and 
the  door  yielded,  and  he  fell  upon  the  ground  outside. 
But  it  was  not  to  rise  and  fly.  The  ball  had  struck 
him  clean  above  the  ear,  and  buried  itself  in  the 
brain.     He  was  dead. 

Only  a  few  seconds  had  passed  since  the  first  blow 
was  given,  before  all  was  over.  Fiercely  cursing  the 
fate  which  had  made  him  a  murderer,  in  spite  of  him- 
self,  Morty  flung  down   the   smoking  pistol.     There 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUXBOY.  417 

was  no  time  to  lose,  for  the  people  passing  to  church 
had  discovered  the  boatmen  behind  the  rock,  and 
some  others,  drawn  by  the  noise,  had  gathered  before 
the  smithy.  His  crew,  in  spite  of  his  orders,  found 
their  way  in.  "  Take  up  that  carrion,"  he  said,  spurn- 
ing Sylvester's  body  with  his  foot,  as  if  he  could  fling 
off  the  burden  of  his  crime  on  the  miserable  wretch  ; 
"  take  him  up  and  carry  him  to  the  boat."  As  the 
wounded  man  showed  signs  of  life,  they  rolled  him  in 
a  cloak  and  bore  him  carefully  to  the  waterside. 
Morty  Sullivan  and  Connell  strode  behind,  no  one 
darijig  to  interfere  with  them,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
the  galley  had  shot  out  across  the  harbour  and  dis- 
appeared behind  the  point  of  the  island. 


CHAPTER   XXVni. 

The  murder  of  a  revenue  officer  in  Ireland  was,  like 
a  duel,  of  so  ordinary  occurrence  that  in  the  common 
course  of  events  it  would  have  attracted  small  atten- 
tion. Colonel  Goring's  predecessor  had  been  shot  by 
the  smugglers.  That  he  should  be  shot  himself  was 
no  more  than  might  have  been  expected.  But  men 
of  exceptionally  high  character,  though  inconvenient 
to  deal  with  when  alive,  are  regretted  ostentatiously 
when  they  are  gone.  Society  feels  that  it  has 
neglected  them,  and  quiets  its  conscience  by  the  loud- 
ness of  its  regrets. 

In  the  counties  of  Cork  and  Kerry,  and  even 
within  the  sacred  precincts  of  Dublin  Castle,  the 
assassination  of  Colonel  Goring,  alm.ost  at  his  own 
door  and  among  his  own  people,  created  a  sense  of 
shame  strong  enough  to  last  even  for  a  few  hours,  and 

^7 


41 8  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


an  alarm  which  lasted  as  many  days.  The  circum- 
stances of  the  murder  were,  in  a  high  degree,  sensa- 
tional. The  blacksmith,  Minahan,  to  clear  himself  of 
complicity,  told  all  that  he  could.  He  knew  Sylvester 
O'Sullivan,  and  had  been  told  by  him  that  two  gentle- 
men would  be  coming  in  from  the  water  on  the 
Sunday  morning.  Sylvester  had  said  that  their  object 
was  to  hear  mass,  but  he  had  suspected  that  they 
had  some  other  purpose.  He  described  their  arrival. 
From  fragments  of  their  conversation  which  he  over- 
heard, he  had  gathered  that  they  had  ill  intentions 
against  the  Colonel,  whom,  on  his  coming  up,  he  had 
endeavoured  to  put  on  his  guard,  but  without  effect. 
Through  a  crack  in  the  boardings  he  had  heard  and 
seen  all  that  afterwards  happened.  He  related 
the  words  which  had  passed  between  Goring  and 
Morty,  the  courage  which  Goring  had  shown,  and 
the  gallant  fight  which  he  had  made  for  his  life. 
The  story  was  published  in  the  Court  Gazette,  in  all 
its  details,  and  called  out  a  burst  of  penitent  anger 
which  was  almost  genuine,  and  compelled  the  Govern- 
ment to  exert  itself  The  gentry  of  the  county 
called  meetings  and  passed  resolutions.  They  had 
hesitated  at  first,  being  unwilling,  for  reasons  of  their 
own,  that  there  should  be  too  curious  an  enquiry 
into  smuggling  transactions.  But  they  recovered 
courage  when  it  was  ascertained  that  Morty  had 
escaped  to  France,  and  was  not  expected  to  re-appear 
in  Ireland.  The  murder  was  represented  as  uncon- 
nected with  the  contraband  business,  and  as  having 
arisen  out  of  a  personal  feud.  They  were,  therefore, 
able  to  denounce  it  with  unanimity,  and  to  exert 
themselves  in  prosecuting  an  investigation  which 
could  lead  to  no  more  than  was  already  known.  They 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  419 


even  signed  a  patriotic  remonstrance  against  the 
supineness  of  the  executive  Government,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  Morty  was  again  proclaimed  an  out- 
law, and  a  reward  was  again  offered  for  his  capture 
dead  or  alive.  The  Garland  frigate  came  up  from 
Kinsale  to  the  Kenmare  River,  as  far  as  the  entrance 
of  Bally  Ouoilach,  and  came  away  again  after  this 
bold  display  of  energy.  Had  she  gone  round  when 
the  first  rumours  were  heard  of  Morty's  presence,  she 
would  probably  have  taken  him.  Having  delayed  for 
three  weeks,  she  was  less  completely  successful.  She 
sailed  up  to  his  empty  nest,  looked,  and  returned  to 
her  anchorage.  There  was  an  odd  influence  in  the 
Castle  executive,  which  paralysed  all  attempts  at  deal- 
ing with  popular  delinquents  as  long  as  their  efforts 
had  a  chance  of  being  successful.  They  could  only 
afford  to  be  active  when  they  knew  the  criminal  to  be 
beyond  their  reach.  In  the  present  instance  there  was 
a  sense  of  relief,  unavowed,  but  most  real,  that  an  un- 
necessarily zealous  public  servant  had  been  put  out  of 
the  way.  Morty  Sullivan  was  gone  from  Ireland,  and 
there  need  be  no  more  anxiety  about  him  or  his  con- 
spiracies. Thus  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  doing 
anything,  since  they  supposed  there  was  nothing  to  be 
done,  the  authorities  had  only  to  be  profuse  with  com- 
pliments to  the  merits  of  their  murdered  officer,  with 
regrets  that  he  had  been  lost  to  his  country,  and  with 
polite  condolences  to  his  family.  In  this  part  of  their 
duty  they  were  honourably  energetic,  and  they  dis- 
played agreeably  the  interest  felt  by  the  British  ruJers 
of  Ireland  in  the  fortunes  of  their  servants.  The 
Secretary  in  Dublin  wrote  a  despatch  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  in  London.  The  Secretary  of  State  in  London 
replied  with  courtesy  and  dignity.  The  highest  person 


420  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

in  the  realm  sent  a  gracious  message  to  Mrs.  Goring 
to  soften  the  poignancy  of  her  loss.  It  was  rumoured 
indeed  that  Pitt,  when  he  heard  of  it  all,  let  fall  a  few 
bitter  sentences,  that  certain  lofty  personages  might 
be  promoted  to  a  yet  higher,  if  less  pleasant,  elevation 
with  advantage  to  the  commonwealth.  But  Pitt  was 
busy  founding  Indian  Empires,  and  wresting  America 
from  the  French,  and  had  no  leisure  for  the  poor 
Island,  the  very  name  of  which  English  statesmen 
could  not  hear  without  disgust. 

Thus,  after  a  decent  demonstration,  the  nine  days' 
wonder  was  over,  and  the  waters  of  oblivion  closed 
over  the  the  last  victim  of  official  incompetence. 
Colonel  Goring  had  been  killed  at  the  beginning  of 
March.  By  the  end  of  the  month  Press  and  Govern- 
ment had  delivered  their  funeral  eulogies,  and  com- 
pleted their  easy  and  ineffectual  efforts  to  punish  the 
crime.  Life  went  back  into  its  ordinary  channels,  and 
as  the  excess  of  insincere  laudation  provoked  a  recoil, 
before  April  was  half  over  the  Colonel  had  again 
come  to  be  spoken  of  as  an  unwise  person,  who  had 
been  too  busy,  and  had  wished  to  be  better  than  his 
neighbours,  who  did  not  understand  Ireland,  and  had 
brought  his  fate  upon  himself. 

So  it  went  with  the  rulers  in  high  places,  and  the 
general  county  society.  Colonel  Goring's  personal 
friends,  his  brother  officers  who  had  not  forgotten  him 
in  his  Irish  exile,  his  relations  and  his  immediate 
family,  were  unable  to  bear  what  had  befallen  him 
with  equal  indifference.  No  serious  attempt  had  been 
made  to  discover  the  accomplices  in  the  crime.  It 
was  assumed  that  they  had  fled,  and  even  Eyris  has 
been  left  unvisited.  They  complained,  though  they 
complained  ineffectually,  that  the  authorities  had  wil- 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.        ^      421 

fully  evaded  an  enquiry  which  might  lead  to  awkward 
revelations.  Fitzherbert  had  been  left  sole  executor  ; 
his  cousin's  fortune  was  ample,  and  had  been  improved, 
notwithstanding  his  profuse  generosity,  by  the  success 
which  had  attended  his  enterprises  in  the  years  during 
which  he  had  been  able  to  pursue  them.  Since  the 
Catholic  population  had  turned  against  him,  he  had 
been  himself  the  only  link  which  had  held  his  colony 
together.  He  had  provided  in  his  will  to  send  them 
all  home  if  they  wished  it.  After  his  death,  Ireland 
and  all  to  do  with  it,  became  hateful  to  them,  and 
they  hastened  to  begone.  The  cottages  were  deserted, 
the  mine  shafts  closed,  the  wheels  broken,  the  boats 
gathered  together  and  burnt  upon  the  strand,  and 
before  the  Spring  grass  had  begun  to  turn  green,  and 
the  latest  primrose  had  ceased  to  blow  among  the 
ruins  of  Dunboy,  the  Protestant  settlement  which  had 
promised  at  one  time  to  mature  into  a  community 
that  might  have  changed  the  history  of  the  South- 
western counties,  was  left  to  the  winds  and  the  rain. 

As  long  as  there  was  anything  to  be  done,  Fitzher- 
bert controlled  his  own  feelings.  He  had  anticipated 
always  how  his  cousin's  enterprise  would  end.  The 
longer  he  had  watched  the  working  of  it,  the  less 
hopeful  he  had  been.  He  understood  better  than 
Goring  the  spirit  of  the  age.  He  knew  that  the  day 
had  passed  for  a  renovation  of  the  beliefs  and  enthu- 
siasms which  had  rescued  the  Northern  Province.  The 
settlement  of  Ulster  had  been  the  work  of  Protestant 
conviction,  at  a  time  when  Protestant  conviction  was 
a  faith  for  which  men  would  live  and  die.  The  Scotch 
and  English  immigrants  had  gone  into  it  with  the 
spirit  of  Crusaders.  A  Protestant  Government  had 
stayed  up  the  sapling  till  it  had  grown  into  a  tree, 


422  THE   TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV. 

which  could  not  be  overthrown.  In  Goring's  people 
there  had  been  the  same  piety,  the  same  earnestness, 
the  same  energy  ;  but  instead  of  support  from  those 
in  power,  they  had  met  only  with  hostility,  and 
those  among  them  who  had  seen  clearest  had 
judged  rightly,  that  the  favour  of  God  was  not  with 
them. 

But  the  more  he  felt  that  the  Colonel's  success  was 
impossible,  the  more  he  admired  the  simplicity  and 
the  devotion  of  his  kinsman's  personal  character,  the 
more  indignant  he  was  at  the  practical  negligence 
with  which  the  murder  had  been  passed  over.  The 
widow,  as  soon  as  she  had  recovered  sufficiently  from 
the  shock  to  be  able  to  move,  he  conducted  to 
England,  and  left  her  there  with  her  own  friends. 
The  business  of  the  administration  obliged  him  to 
return  immediately,  and  detained  him  in  Cork. 
General  Vavasour  was  still  busy  there  with  the  forti- 
fications of  Spike  Island.  The  Governor  being  absent 
on  protracted  leave,  Vavasour  was  in  command 
of  the  forces,  and  in  him  Fitzherbert  found  a 
sympathiser  who  could  share  his  wrath  at  the  wilful 
indifference  which  could  leave  the  noblest  and  best 
man  in  the  country  to  be  sacrificed  with  absolute  im- 
punity. Vavasour  had  studied  Goring's  character 
more  carefully  than  he  seemed  to  have  done  during 
his  stay  at  Dunbo}^  The  more  he  saw,  the  more, 
like  Fitzherbert,  he  admired.  His  first  coldness 
about  the  survey  of  the  island  was  due  to  no  fault  of 
his,  and  in  his  report,  which  was  as  warm  as  he  could 
make  it,  he  had  dwelt  on  the  importance  of  the 
harbour,  and  on  the  impropriety,  he  almost  went  so 
far  as  to  say  the  criminality,  of  leaving  such  a  man  to 
be  destroyed,  as  without  support  he  probably  would  be. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  423 

"  Consider  too,"  he  said,  "  what  Goring  might  have 
done,  if  he  could  have  held  his  ground,  for  Irish 
history,  surrounded  as  he  was  by  the  most  curious 
relics  of  antiquity.  He  was  not  learned,  but  he  had 
a  good  eye  for  fact.  He  was  more  right  than  you  or 
I  in  the  explanation  which  he  gave  of  the  Danish 
fort.  He  showed  his  sense,  too,  in  his  readiness  to 
listen  to  what  I  could  tell  him.  It  is  really  dreadful 
to  me  to  think  of  such  opportunities  thrown  away. 
Like  enough,  he  might  have  found  on  his  own 
property  the  key  to  the  Round  Towers.  Yes,  yes  ; 
he  was  a  splendid  fellow  !  And  I  cannot  yet  feel 
certain  that  we  have  heard  the  last  of  the  story. 
The  villain  that  shot  him  will  soon  be  at  his  old 
tricks  again.  Elliot  came  in  wnth  the  y^olus  last 
night.  He  would  not  be  sorry  to  have  a  second 
chance  at  him  ;  and  as  for  me,  if  I  hear  of  Master 
Morty  on  the  coast,  I  shall  act  on  my  own  judgment, 
without  wasting  time  in  writing  to  Dublin." 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

If  at  any  time  during  the  week  which  followed  the 
murder  a  careful  search  had  been  made  at  Eyris  and 
in  the  neighbourhood,  Sylvester  O'Sullivan  could  not 
have  escaped  discovery.  Morty's  intention  had  been 
to  sail  immediately  for  France  after  his  meeting  with 
Goring,  but  Sylvester  had  been  so  badly  hurt  that  he 
could  ill  bear  removing.  Morty  hated  the  sight  of 
him,  and  determined  to  put  him  on  shore.  The 
lugger  returned  through  the  Sound  to  Bally  Ouoilach, 
Morty  sullen  and  silent,  and  Connell  supporting  the 
wounded  wretch  who  was  struggling  back  to  pain  and 


424  TFIE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

consciousness.  It  so  happened,  that  if  a  sufficient 
force  had  been  sent  to  Eyris  the  instant  the  murder 
was  known,  Morty  might  have  been  captured  himself. 
He  had  meant  to  sail  again  immediately,  but  the 
lugger  had  touched  a  rock  in  coming  through  the 
Sound,  and  had  started  a  plank,  and  two  days'  work 
had  to  be  done  upon  her  before  she  was  fit  for  sea 
again.  Morty  all  the  time  spoke  to  no  one,  but. 
moodily  paced  the  shore.  Of  Sylvester  he  enter- 
tained a  kind  of  horror,  as  the  cause  of  all  that  had 
gone  wrong  with  him,  and  the  miserable  old  man  was 
stowed  away  out  of  his  sight  in  a  cabin  ^^•here  he  was 
least  likely  to  be  looked  for.  It  had  been  Morty's 
long-settled  purpose  that  his  sister  and  her  child 
should  leave  Ireland.  He  was  passionately  anxious 
that  the  last  representative  of  the  old  house  should 
grow  up  with  more  favourable  surroundings  than  the 
half-savage  neighbourhood  of  the  Kenmare  River. 
He  thought  of  carrying  them  off  along  with  him,  but 
he  was  in  no  condition  as  yet  to  form  plans  for  the 
future.  He  might  not  linger,  for,  with  all  his  expe- 
rience of  persons  in  authority  in  Ireland,  he  could  not 
anticipate  that  the  sensation  on  Colonel  Goring's  death 
would  pass  off  in  words.  This  time,  he  assured  himself 
that  both  he  and  Connell  would  be  sharply  sought 
for,  and  that  they  must  escape  at  the  earliest  moment. 
If  they  were  out  of  the  way,  his  sister  would  not  be 
interfered  with ;  and  whether  Sylvester  was  caught 
or  not  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  him.  Wretched 
as  he  was,  too,  he  had  his  duties  to  discharge  to  the 
French  Government ;  and  thus  the  moment  that  the 
lugger's  wounded  plank  was  refitted,  he  and  Connell 
sailed  for  Nantes,  where  their  coming  was  anxiously 
looked  for.  During^  his  absence  in  the  West  Indies  his 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  425 

friend  Blake's  trade  with  the  old  country  had  been  as 
active  as  ever,  and  the  reports  brought  to  Blake  from 
his  own  correspondents  as  to  the  state  of  preparation 
for  a  rising  in  the  Southern  Provinces  had  been  so 
much  more  favourable  than  the  impressions  formed 
by  Morty,  that  in  reliance  upon  them  the  French 
were  seriously  thinking  of  landing  five  thousand  men 
at  Bantry  and  marching  upon  Cork  without  delay. 
With  the  slightest  assistance  from  the  people  it  was 
thought  that  such  a  force  w^ould  easily  overwhelm  the 
British  garrison.  Cork  would  fall,  the  naval  stores 
would  be  taken,  the  two  frigates  in  the  harbour  de- 
stroyed, and  Thurot's  squadron,  which  was  ready  at 
Brest,  would  be  able  effectually  to  follow  up  the  blow. 
The  French  Government  was  only  waiting  for  Morty's 
return.  His  opinion,  if  favourable,  was  to  be  decisive. 
Thus,  day  after  day,  Mr.  Blake  paced  his  terrace,  im- 
patiently sweeping  the  horizon  with  his  spy-glass. 
Other  vessels  came  in  from  the  Irish  coast.  Why 
w^as  Morty  delaying  so  long  ?  At  length  the  brown 
sails  of  the  lugger  were  seen  slowly  drawing  up 
the  river  ;  slowly,  for  the  tide  was  falling  and  the 
breeze  was  light.  She  crawled  along  at  a  snail's 
pace.  When  she  brought  up  at  last,  her  crew  were 
so  long  in  lowering  the  boat  that  Walsh  ordered 
his  own  in  his  impatience  that  he  might  go  off  and 
see  what  was  the  matter.  The  lugger's  boat,  how- 
ever, put  off  at  last,  with  O'Sullivan  and  Connell  in 
the  stern  sheets,  and  he  hurried  to  the  stairs  to  meet 
them.  Morty,  when  it  came  alongside,  rose  languidly 
and,  with  his  arm  on  Connell's  shoulders,  came  feebly 
up  the  steps.  He  barely  touched  his  cap  to  Blake, 
and,  when  he  reached  the  terrace,  stood  looking  round 
him  with  weary  indifference. 


426  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

"  The  Lord  be  praised  for  your  safe  arrival,"  said 
Blake.  "  We  thought  some  ill  had  come  by  ye,  you 
were  so  long  on  the  way.  Welcome,  anyway.  But 
ye  look  as  I  never  saw  ye  !  Are  ye  ill,  man,  or  what 
is  it  ?  " 

"  My  friend  Blake,"  said  Morty,  "  I  brought  you  back 
your  ship  from  the  West  Indies,  and  you  will  not  say 
but  I  did  my  duty  to  you  and  your  house  while  she 
was  under  my  command.  There  she  floats,  sound 
and  watertight,  for  all  the  shot  the  English  guns  sent 
through  the  bottom  of  her !  Your  lugger,  too — no 
hurt  has  come  to  her.  You  have  her  there  as  you 
trusted  her  to  me.  And  now  I  must  tell  you  I  am 
tired  of  this  work,  and  I  will  have  no  more  of  it ! " 

"  I'll  not  believe  that,"  answered  Blake.  "  You 
have  brought  back  yourself,  and  ship  and  lugger 
might  have  gone  to  the  bottom  for  aught  I  should 
have  cared,  sooner  than  anything  but  good  should 
have  come  to  you.  But  what  word  do  you  bring? 
They  are  waiting  for  you  at  Paris.  Each  day  brings 
me  a  post  to  ask  if  you  are  returned.  Tired  of  the 
work  ?  Why,  if  things  have  gone  wrong,  you  and  I 
are  not  to  be  cast  down  because  the  dice  are  cross  for 
a  throw  or  two.  But  what  is  it  ?  Let  us  hear  what  has 
befallen  ye  that  ye  look  like  Father  O'Brine's  ghost 
when  he  came  back  to  tell  the  Bishop  that  he  was 
kept  in  purgatory  for  want  of  being  rightly  absolved." 

"  The  only  absolution  which  would  be  of  use  to  me," 
growled  Morty,  "  would  be  a  bullet  through  the  brain 
of  me,  and  that  relief  I  shall  go  and  look  for  in  my 
old  service.  We  will  part  friends,  Blake,  but  part  we 
must.  I'll  be  with  the  Austrians  in  Bohemia  before 
the  world  is  many  weeks  older.  Fool  that  I  was  to 
leave  them." 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  427 

"  Don't  be  questioning  Morty  just  now,  while  the  fit 
is  on  him,"  said  Connell,  pulling  Blake  aside.  "  He 
had  a  misfortune  before  he  came  away.  No  great 
matter  to  my  mind,  but  he  rages  when  he  thinks  of  it 
as  if  the  divil  was  inside  him." 

"  If  there  is  bad  luck  in  the  world  there  is  good 
luck  along  with  it,"  said  Blake.  "  There  was  a  sloop 
came  in  last  night  from  Crookhaven  that  brought 
word  that  the  revenue  officer  at  Dunboy  had  got  his 
death  ;  he  that  was  at  Culloden  and  that  Morty  had 
the  quarrel  with.  That  is  no  misfortune,  anyway,  the 
ill-mannered  villain  that  he  was." 

"  Hist !  "  whispered  Connell,  "  he'll  hear  ye  ;  that 
is  the  very  thing.  'Twas  Morty  killed  him,  and  me 
standing  by  when  it  was  done.  Morty  wanted  the 
Colonel  to  fight  him  and  the  Colonel  wouldn't,  and 
gave  him  bad  words  instead.  There  was  a  bit  of  a 
struggle  then.  Old  Sylvester,  that  you'll  find,  got  a 
rap  with  a  hammer  from  the  Colonel,  that  nearly  put 
the  life  out  of  him,  and  knives  were  drawn,  and 
Morty's  temper  got  up  and  he  shot  the  Colonel 
through  the  head,  and  he  has  been  cursing  himself 
ever  since  for  having  done  it." 

''  And  what  ailed  the  cowardly  rascal,"  said 
Blake,  "  that  he  would  not  fight  a  gentleman  who 
was  condescending  to  provide  him  with  an  oppor- 
tunity ?  " 

"  Cowardly  Colonel  Goring  was  not,"  said  Morty, 
who  caught  the  words  and  understood  to  what  they 
referred.  "  Cowardly  he  was  not,  and  rascal  he  was 
not.  I'll  do  him.  that  justice  though  he  crossed  me  at 
so  many  turns.  God  knows  I  prayed  him  to  take  the 
pistols  and  defend  himself,  and  you  can  witness  your- 
self, Connell,  he  knew   how  to   use  them.     My  hand 


428  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BO  Y. 

fired  the  shot  that  killed  him  ;  my  hand  did  it ;  but 
not  I.  I  would  give  the  best  blood  in  my  body  that 
he  was  alive  among  us  at  this  moment." 

"  Indeed  then,"  said  Conncll,  " 'twas  well  for  me  that 
your  hand  was  readier  than  yourself.  The  skene  would 
have  found  a  sheath  in  my  heart  else,  and  as  to  his 
being  alive  again,  it  is  my  opinion  that  he  is  better 
where  he  is." 

''  I  can  ill  understand  ye  both,"  said  Blake,  "  or 
what  it  is  that  has  happened  at  all ;  but  from  what  ye 
say,  Mr.  Connell,  there  was  the  Sylvester  creature  half 
murdered,  and  yourself,  but  that  Morty  there  came  to 
your  help,  was  murdered  entirely.  What  would  that 
be  but  a  fair  fight,  and  w^hat  is  the  use  of  crying  w^hen 
a  drop  of  blood  has  been  spilt,  specially  the  blood  of 
thim  divils  of  Saxons?  Why,  you  are  a  soldier,  Morty 
Oge,  and  killing  is  your  trade.  The  Colonel  ye  speak 
of  was  the  worst  enemy  ye  had.  I  have  heard  ye  say 
so  a  dozen  times.  Well,  ye  have  put  him  out  of  the 
way  and  are  well  rid  of  him,  and  Irish  trade  is  well 
rid  of  him,  and  there  is  an  end.  Have  ye  turned 
woman  that  }^e  are  so  chicken-hearted  ?  " 

"  i\ye,  chicken-hearted,"  said  Morty  bitterly,  "or 
it  maybe  it's  a  hypocrite  ye  are  thinking  me.  And 
what  am  I  to  think  of  myself?  When  I  came  here  to 
you  three  years  back  I  had  been  in  many  a  battle. 
Fighting  was  my  trade,  as  you  say,  but  it  was  at  the 
side  of  honourable  men,  and  in  an  honourable  cause. 
I  had  been  named  in  despatches  ;  I  had  won  fame  ;  I 
had  promotion  and  rank  within  reach  of  me.  I  could 
carry  my  head  as  proudly  as  the  best  of  them.  No 
action  could  be  charged  against  Morty  Sullivan  that 
he  need  blush  to  hear  of,  and  you,  Blake,  made  me 
a   pirate,   an   associate   of  ruffians  whose   trade  was 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  429 


plunder.  Had  I  been  taken  I  should  have  swung  on 
the  gallows,  and  now,  because  I  have  added  another 
crime  to  the  list,  you  are  astonished  that  I  give  a 
second  thought  to  it." 

"  Morty  Oge,"  said  Blake,  "  what  is  done  is  done, 
and  to  whine  over  what  cannot  be  recalled  is  weak 
and  womanish.  I  called  the  man  a  rascal.  Whether 
he  was  a  rascal  or  not,  in  the  world's  sense,  I  neither 
know  nor  care,  but  he  was  an  Englishman,  and  be- 
tween England  and  Ireland  there  runs  a  river  of  blood 
which  will  cease  to  flow  only  when  the  accursed 
English  flag  no  longer  waves  on  Irish  soil.  Between 
us  and  them  there  is  no  peace,  and  can  be  none,  nor 
obligations  of  honour  in  our  dealings  with  them.  We 
cannot  fight  them  in  the  field  unless  other  nations 
help  us,  but  we  have  never  yielded  and  never  will 
yield  ;  we  will  fight  on  \\\\\\  such  weapons  as  we  can 
use,  and  with  such  a  foe  all  means  are  fair.  In  this 
war  your  Saxon  Colonel  has  fallen  one  of  the  victims, 
worse  or  better,  brave  or  co\\'ard — who  cares?  Not  I, 
for  one.  Do  you  fancy  your  own  ancestors,  whom 
Carew  drove  from  their  homes,  will  think  the  worse  of 
you  because,  on  the  very  spot,  you  have  laid  low  the 
representative  of  the  spoiler  ?  The  black  mare  of  the 
lake  has  marked  ye  with  her  hoof,  man.  You  are  not 
yourself.  I  tell  ye  we  have  \\ox\^  for  ye  to  do  as 
honourable  as  your  own  scruples  can  desire,  if  scru- 
pulous ye  have  grown  on  the  sudden.  A  messenger 
from  Versailles  is  at  this  moment  in  the  house  to 
speak  with  you." 

"  You  may  gloss  it  over  as  you  will  with  your  wars 
between  the  races,"  answered  Morty,  "  and  war  there 
is  and  ever  will  be  till  one  or  other  of  them  is  out  of 
that  island.     But  the  quarrel  between  that  man  and 


430  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

me  was  our  own.  He  was  a  soldier,  as  I  am,  and  a 
brave  one.  It  is  ended.  He  is  dead  ;  gone  out  of 
the  world  beyond  my  reach,  and  the  balance  is  with 
him  and  not  with  me.  If  he  had  not  been  an  English- 
man I  would  say  I  envied  him,  and  would  rather  have 
fallen  as  he  fell,  than  live  as  I  must  live.  But  the 
past,  as  you  say,  is  the  past.  I  am  as  true  an  Irish- 
man as  you  are,  and  I  love  my  miserable  country  as 
well  as  you  can  love  it.  On  a  fair  field  and  by  fair 
means  I  would  fight  the  English  while  I  could  hold 
sword  or  level  cannon ;  but  as  to  your  methods, 
neither  to  fight  nor  to  yield,  to  have  the  form  of  peace, 
but  to  recognise  no  duty  rising  out  of  it,  to  plot  and 
to  murder  and  to  burn,  to  put  on  a  lying  appearance 
of  submission,  to  fawn  and  flatter  with  hatred  in  the 
heart,  for  that  is  what  your  method  means  ;  I  will 
have  none  of  it.  The  infernal  stream  which  under- 
runs  the  surface  of  Irish  life,  drags  every  one  along, 
the  best  and  the  worst,  as  it  has  dragged  me, 
and  ill  fall  the  day  that  ever  you  tempted  me 
to  return  there.  For  this  messenger  I  can  but  say 
what  I  say  to  you.  I  saw  the  leaders  of  the  Army 
of  Insurrection,  as  they  call  it.  They  said  what  you 
say.  They  were  not  an  army.  They  could  not  fight. 
But  they  could  make  the  country  ungovernable  and 
keep  an  English  army  occupied  in  watching  them. 
They  pretended  that  if  the  French  \\-ere  once  on  land 
among  them  they  would  then  rise.  I  don't  believe  it, 
and  this  messenger  shall  so  report  from  me.  If  Louis 
trusts  their  promises,  they  will  treat  him  as  they  have 
treated  everyone  who  has  been  weak  enough  to  depend 
on  them.  They  will  sit  still  and  leave  him  to  fight  his 
own  battle.  That  is  my  opinion  of  my  countrymen. 
They  prefer  the   methods   to  which  they  have  been 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  431 

accustomed.  If  the  French  choose  to  encourage  them 
on  these  terms,  it  is  their  own  affair.  For  myseh"  I 
have  a  good  record  with  the  Austrians.  The  war 
with  Prussia  has  broken  out  again,  and  there  will  be 
employment  enough.  In  that  service  even  an  Irish- 
man can  earn  an  honourable  name,  or,  if  the  luck  be 
with  him,"  he  added  sadly,  "  an  honourable  end." 

"  It  cannot  be,"  Blake  said.  "  France  cannot  spare 
you,  and  your  country  cannot  spare  you.  They  trust 
you  in  Paris  as  they  trust  none  else,  and  your  own 
people  trust  you,  all  the  more  since  ye  cleared  your 
home  of  the  Saxon.  Thurot  is  ready  at  Brest,  and  to 
Ireland  he  is  to  go.  Whether  North  or  South  is  un- 
decided, but  surely  to  one  or  the  other.  It  is  not  your- 
self that  will  be  failing  at  such  a  time," 

'*  The  old  story,"  Morty  replied.  ''  The  French  are 
coming,  and  the  Saxons  are  to  be  hurled  out,  and 
Ireland  is  to  be  free  at  last.  One  of  two  things  always 
happens.  Either  the  French  do  not  come  after  all,  and 
our  poor  fools  in  the  expectation  of  them  murder  a 
landlord  or  two,  and  burn  their  houses,  and  then,  when 
no  help  appears,  betray  one  another,  and  a  few  score  are 
hanged  ;  or  else  they  do  come,  but  in  too  small  force 
to  do  the  work  alone,  and  nobody  joins  them,  and 
they  are  lucky  if  they  get  out  undestroyed.  No  in- 
vading army  can  be  landed  in  Ireland  in  strength 
sufficient  to  drive  the  English  out,  unless  the  people 
rise  at  their  side,  and  the  people  have  not  the  heart  for 
it.  They  never  had.  They  never  will.  Nothing  can 
come  of  this  present  project  but  fresh  wretchedness. 
I  at  least  will  have  no  concern  with  it." 

"  You  will  find  the  French  are  in  earnest  this  time, 
Morty.  You  will  see  they  are  ;  and  they  will  make 
it  worth  your  while  to  lend  them  your  hand.     They 


432  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY. 

mean  to  fight  for  India  and  America  at  England's  own 
back  door." 

"  And  if  they  do,"  said  Morty,  "  what  will  that  come 
to  ?  Suppose  Thurot  takes  Cork  and  keeps  it ;  suppose 
he  takes  Dublin  too,  for  that  matter,' do  you  think  his 
master  would  find  Ireland  such  a  precious  acquisi- 
tion that  he  would  stay  and  take  care  of  it  ?  The 
French  will  hold  what  they  can  get  as  a  pawn  in  the 
game,  and  when  peace  is  made  they  will  go  out  again 
and  leave  us  to  the  English  hangman." 

Nothing  that  Blake  could  say,  nothing  that  the 
trained  emissary  of  the  ministry  at  Versailles  could 
say,  availed  to  shake  Motty's  resolution.  He  persisted 
that,  however  sincere  the  present  purpose  of  the 
French  Government  might  be,  however  immediately 
successful  the  intended  Irish  expedition  might  be, 
Ireland  would  be  sacrificed  when  the  time  came  to 
purchase  better  terms  for  Dupleix  and  Montcalm. 
But  he  was  confident  also,  he  said,  that  the  expedition 
could  not  be  successful,  and  he  refused  to  encourage 
idle  hopes.  Appeals  to  his  ambition,  to  his  interest, 
to  his  pride  and  patriotism,  were  equally  vain.  Even 
a  flattering  autograph  from  Louis  himself  was  not 
more  successful.  He  did  not  give  way  to  despon- 
dency. If  he  could  not  pardon  himself  for  Goring's 
death,  yet  as  time  passed  on  and  he  could  think 
coolly,  his  conduct  did  not  seem  to  him  of  so  dark  a 
kind  that  it  need  spoil  and  embitter  his  remaining 
existence.  He  had  not  designed  any  foul  play.  He 
had  not  allowed  Sylvester's  treachery.  Goring's 
scornful  words,  which  had  blistered  his  skin  like 
drops  of  melted  metal,  were  not  entirely  deserved. 
There  had  been  a  fight — even  to  himself  he  could  hardly 
say  a  fair  one,  but  still  a  fight — and  he  had  fired  only  to 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY.  433 


save  his  friend's  life.  His  remorse  was  deep,  but  he 
could  hope  that  it  need  not  be  eternal.  The  recollection 
of  the  scene,  however,  rendered  everything  connected 
wnth  Ireland  hateful  to  him.  Had  he  not  been  sincerely 
convinced  that  a  French  invasion  would  end  in 
nothing,  he  might  have  conquered  his  unwillingness. 
But  he  knew  that  no  nation  could  ever  achieve  a 
liberty  that  would  not  be  a  curse  to  it,  except  by  arms 
in  the  field,  and  this  his  countrymen  declared  that 
they  would  not  and  could  not  venture.  Warm  letters 
meanwhile  reached  him  from  the  court  of  the  Empress, 
where  he  was  assured  of  a  hearty  welcome,  and  thither 
he  made  arrangements  to  go  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity. 

On  one  point  only  he  yielded.  When  he  went  over 
to  communicate  with  the  patriot  leaders,  he  had  been 
entrusted  with  negociations  for  the  landing  and  distri- 
bution of  fresh  arms,  and  with  important  business 
arrangements  for  Blake's  firm.  In  the  haste  in  which  he 
had  come  away  he  had  left  his  work  unfinished  ;  and  no 
one  else  could  be  found  to  take  it  up  without  his 
assistance  on  the  spot.  So  at  least  the  matter  was 
represented  to  him  by  Blake,  who  insisted  that  he 
ou":ht  not  to  desert  him  in  a  matter  of  serious  conse- 
quence.  Morty,  vv'ho  was  sensitive  on  a  point  of 
honour,  felt  the  force  of  the  argument,  and  another 
motive  came  in  at  the  same  time  to  increase  the 
strength  of  it.  He  had  sent  word  to  his  sister  to 
come  over  and  join  him  with  her  boy.  She,  to  whom 
Goring's  death  had  brought  only  joy  and  triumph, 
could  think  only  of  her  country's  approaching  deliver- 
ance. She  refused  to  go  to  him,  and  she  reproached 
him  with  the  desertion  of  the  cause.  Obstinate  and 
violent  as  he  had  experienced  her  to  be,  he  believed 

28 


434  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BO  V. 

that  he  could  persuade  her  if  he  cauld  be  In  person  on 
the  spot  to  bring  her  away.  The  hue  and  cry  aftc 
himself  had  died  away.  The  darkest  criminal  in 
Ireland,  if  he  could  evade  capture  for  a  week  or  two, 
was  in  little  danger  afterwards.  One  wild  story  put 
out  the  recollection  of  another,  and  at  the  end  of  six 
weeks  he  felt  that  with  moderate  precautions  he 
could  venture  back  for  a  few  days  without  danger. 

With  these  objects,  and  with  no  companion  save 
the  faithful  Connell,  who  had  attended  him  in  all  his 
adventures,  Morty  Sullivan  sailed  in  the  disguise  of  a 
common  seaman  in  a  Valentia  hooker,  and  at  the 
end  of  April  he  was  again  at  Eyris  under  his  own 
roof.  To  his  surprise  and  disgust,  the  first  person 
who  came  smiling  to  welcome  him,  was  his  kinsman, 
Sylvester.  Having  recovered  from  his  wound,  Sylvester 
had  established  himself  there  as  Ellen  Mahony's  guest, 
and  as  he  was  known  to  have  been  at  the  murder, 
and  had  been  named  in  the  proclamation,  his  presence 
in  the  house  was  compromising  her  safety  as  well  as 
his  own.  Already  Morty  had  come  to  look  at  him 
with  feelings  for  which  detestation  would  bs  too  mild 
a  word.  He  spoke  savagely  and  bitterly  to  him,  and 
spurned  him  away.  He  bade  him  leave  Eyris  in- 
stantly and  hide  himself  where  he  could  among  the 
mountains.  He  believed  that  he  had  done  with  him 
for  ever.  He  had  yet  to  learn  that  the  dog-like  affec- 
tion of  the  follower  for  his  chief  turns  to  fury  if  it  is 
scorned  and  rejected.  The  depth  of  treachery  to 
which  Irish  revenge  could  descend,  was  a  discovery 
which  he  had  yet  to  make. 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  435 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

GORING'S  affairs  had  been  left  in  good  order.  His 
dispositions  were  simple.  His  widow  was  removed 
to  England.  The  Dunboy  settlers  had  been  taken 
home.  Only  a  few  legal  details  remained  to  be 
arranged  with  the  Colonel's  solicitor  in  Cork  ;  Fitz- 
herbert  could  then  wind  up  his  duties  as  executor, 
and  a  curious  and  interesting  chapter  in  his  own  life 
would  be  brought  to  a  close.  Up  to  the  time  when 
he  first  became  intimate  with  his  cousin,  he  had 
been  content  to  be  a  looker  on  at  the  farce  which  was 
called  the  English  administration  of  Ireland.  Too 
proud  to  take  a  part  in  it,  and  too  indolent  to  exert 
himself  in  swimming  against  the  stream,  he  had 
watched  Viceroy  succeed  Viceroy,  and  folly  succeed 
folly,  seeing  clearly  all  the  time  that  the  Protestant 
gentry  were  living  on  a  volcano,  and  that  below  the  thin 
surface  crust  there  flowed  a  stream  of  subterranean 
lava.  Unexpectedly,  in  a  corner  of  the  country 
where  the  skin  was  thinnest,  and  the  hot  springs  were 
actually  bubbling  through,  he  had  found  a  kinsman  of 
his  own  fighting  like  a  man,  single-handed,  against 
the  dangerous  elements  around  him.  He  had  seen 
him  neglected,  thwarted,  obstructed,  at  last  destroyed 
by  an  outburst  of  the.  infernal  fire,  and,  after  a  few 
days  of  insincere  regret,  already  forgotten  by  the 
authorities,  his  murder  unavenged,  and  even  the 
obligation  to  punish  it  forgotten. 

During  the   last  few  days   of  his  stay  at  Cork,  he 
was    the  guest    of   his    friend    General    Vavasour  at 

28* 


4-,6  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  TUN  BOY. 

Government  House,  and  long  and  anxious  conversa- 
tions went  on  between  them  on  Ireland's  condition- 
past,  present,  and  prospective.  Vavasour  insisted 
that  the  faults  of  the  Irish  rose  from  the  supercilious 
scorn  with  which  England  had  treated  them.  He 
discovered  in  the  neglected  race  the  elements  of  graces 
and  talents  which  the  English  themselves  were  with- 
out ;  and  he  insisted  eloquently  on  the  intellectual 
achievements  of  their  ancestors,  among  whom  the 
lamp  of  learning  and  poetry  burnt  clear  like  the 
evening  star,  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was  in  darkness^ 

Fitzherbert,  with  less  concern  in  these  speculations 
and  with  imperfect  belief  in  the  soundness  of  them, 
was  provoked  to  see  an  officer  in  high  position  and  of 
high  abilities  wandering  after  theories  which,  even  if 
true,  had  no  bearing  on  present  problems.  He  liked 
Vavasour  too  well  to  contradict  him,  and  he  knew 
the  uselessness  of  it.  "  I  believe  !  I  believe ! "  he 
cried,  at  the  end  of  a  fresh  demonstration  that  the 
Round  Towers  had  been  built  by  the  Fire- worshippers. 
"  Not  a  word  more  I  beseech  you  ;  but  how  are  we 
the  better  for  knowing  that  two  thousand  years  ago 
our  forefathers  raised  Temples  to  the  Devil  ?  " 

If,  as  often  happened,  Fitzherbert  alluded  to  the 
tragedy  at  Dunboy,  Vavasour  would  dismount  fr  m 
his  hobby  on  the  instant.  "  Forgive  me,  my  dear 
friend,"  he  would  say,  "  None  feels  it  more  bitterly 
than  I  do.  I  suppose  I  did  not  exert  myself  as  much 
as  I  ought.  He  was  too  good  for  us.  He  was  a 
Christian  hero,  and  the  modern  world  is  not  made 
for  Christian  heroes.  Their  existence  is  a  reproach  to 
the  rest  of  us.  They  come  to  a  rude  end,  and  \\e 
breathe  more  freely  when  they  are  gone." 

At  the  end  of  one  of  these  conversations,  which  had 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  437 

been  more  than  usually  discursive,  Vavasour  took  a 
soiled  note  out  of  a  portfolio.  "  You  talk  of  the  state 
of  the  country,  Fitzherbert,"  he  said.  "  If  I  may 
believe  the  anonymous  communications  which  are 
dropped  here  every  day,  my  Celtic  sympathies  will  not 
protect  even  myself  One  morning  I  found  a  paper 
pinned  on  my  dressing  table  with  a  coffin  on  it,  and  my 
name  duly  inscribed.  Yesterday,  the  post  brought  me 
a  letter,  which  told  me  that  my  tim.e  was  up,  and  my 
soul  was  to  be  consigned  to  the  '  Sulphurous  Flames 
of  Puriphlegethon.'  What  desperately  long  words  the 
rascals  use  !  Here  is  another  which  I  got  to-day, 
rather  different.  Probably  it  is  a  trap  to  tempt 
me  into  a  place  where  they  can  put  a  knife  into  me, 
but  I  don't  know.  Look  it  through,  and  see  if  any- 
thing strikes  you." 

In  a  large  round,  and  evidently  disguised  hand- 
writing, were  these  words : 

"  If  your  honour  will  give  an  assurance  for  my  life, 
and  will  consider  the  service  which  I  am  willing  to  do 
for  my  country,  I  will  put  ye  on  the  track  of  one 
that  ye  will  be  pleased  to  have  holt  on.  I  will  take 
your  promise  if  ye  will  give  it,  and  will  ask  no  more 
till  ye  have  him  in  hand.  If  ye  will  walk  this  night 
alone  at  eleven  o'clock  on  the  Ould  Quay,  I'll  see  ye 
there  and  speak  with  ye. 

"  From  One  wpio  was  at  the  Blacksmiiti's 
Forge." 

Fitzherbert  read  and  read  again.  "  Some  villainy 
of  course,"  he  said.  It  may  be  an  informer  who 
wishes  to  sell  a  comrade,  or  perhaps,  as  you  suggest, 
it  may  be   a  design  on   yourself     The  point  is  in  the 


438  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 

last  words.  He  seems  to  think  you  will  understand 
them." 

"  My  first  impression,"  Vavasour  said,  "  was  to  give 
the  letter  to  the  Head  Constable,  and  set  him  to 
catch  the  fellow.  But  ten  to  one  he  would  find  it 
out  and  wouldn't  show.  And  besides  if  we  did  take 
him,  we  should  get  nothing  out  of  him.  You  will 
observe  that  it  \\'as  at  a  Blacksmith's  shop  that  your 
cousin  was  killed." 

"  I  did  observe  it,  and  I  suppose  that  is  the  allusion. 
But  who  can  the  one  be  ?  The  murderers  are  out  of 
the  countr}',  and  will  take  care  how  they  shew  them- 
selves again  just  yet.  Do  you  think  of  doing  any- 
thing ?  " 

Vavasour  was  as  fond  of  adventures  as  the  Caliph 
of  Bagdad.  "  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  thought  of  slipping 
on  a  cloak  and  strolling  down  at  the  time  the  man 
names,  just  to  see  whether  there  is  anything  in  it.  It 
is  but  a  mile  or  so,  and  I  can  note  what  is  going  on 
in  the  town  at  those  late  hours." 

"  The  Ould  Quay  is  no  place  for  you,  Vavasour. 
The  lanes  opening  on  it  are  the  nests  of  all  the 
crimps  and  blackguards  in  the  town.  You  are  a 
public  person,  and  have  no  right  to  expose  }'ourself. 
Let  me  go  ?  " 

Vavasour  objected  that  the  letter  had  been  sent  to 
him,  and  that  the  man  would  speak  to  no  one  else. 
It  was  quite  possible,  however,  that  foul  play  was 
intended  ;  and  for  the  Governor  of  the  Town  to 
be  attacked  at  such  a  spot,  would  lead  to  questions 
how  he  came  to  be  there,  which  could  not  be 
satisfactorily  answered.  Fitzherbert  was  a  stranger. 
No  one  would  recognize  him,  no  one  could  have  any 
object  in   doing  him   hurt.     Vavasour,  to  whom    the 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  439 

excitement  ot  the  thing  had  been  the  chief  tempta- 
tion, gave  way  at  last,  and  consented  that  Fitzherbert 
should  go. 

It  was  now  the  first  week  of  May.  The  days  were 
lengthening.  The  sun  did  not  set  till  after  seven. 
By  ten,  however,  little  light  would  be  left,  and  this 
particular  evening  promised  to  be  unusually  dark.  An 
easterly  wind  had  brought  in  a  fog  from  the  sea  which 
shut  out  the  sky,  rested  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses, 
and  spread  over  the  city.  The  oil  lamps  at  the  street 
corners  could  not  be  seen  at  more  than  a  few  feet  off. 
Decent  people  had  closed  their  doors  for  the  night 
and  gone  to  rest.  The  streets  themselves  were  de- 
serted, and  the  only  sounds  which  broke  the  stillness 
were  the  voices  of  the  watchmen  calling  the  hours  or 
the  cries  of  sailors  on  the  river  hauling  ropes  or  heav- 
ing at  a  capstan. 

Fitzherbert  made  his  way  with  some  difficulty 
through  the  lumber  with  which  the  wharves  were 
littered.  The  few  figures  that  he  encountered  avoided 
him  as  he  avoided  them.  The  lamps  as  he  advanced 
along  the  embankment  failed  altogether.  A  few  lines 
only  of  shimmering  light  came  from  ships  anchored  in 
the  tide-way,  by  the  help  of  which  could  be  seen 
buoys  floating  on  the  water,  or  boats  at  their  moorings. 
From  the  narrow  alleys  leading  to  the  harbour  were 
heard  occasional  sounds  of  revelry  or  of  voices  high  in 
quarrel  ;  but  as  he  approached  the  appointed  spot 
not  a  moving  form  was  to  be  seen  anywhere,  and  he 
passed  on,  shuddering  in  spite  of  himself  at  the  thought 
of  the  evil  things  which  might  be  going  on  close  at 
his  hand 

More  than  once  he  was  tempted  to  turn  back.  He 
was    well    aware    that    no    good    will    was    borne    to 


440  THE    TWO    CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

Vavasour  by  the  lawless  population  of  the  lower 
town.  The  probability  was  that  the  letter  really  was  a 
snare,  and  if  so  he  might  find  a  dagger  in  him  at  any 
moment  that  had  been  designed  for  the  acting  Go- 
vernor. But  he  reflected  that  he  v/as  taller  than 
Vavasour  by  a  head,  and  could  not  be  mistaken  for 
him.  He  had  undertaken  to  penetrate  the  mystery, 
and  it  would  be  cowardly  to  flinch.  He  w^ent  for- 
ward, and  as  the  city  clock  tolled  eleven  he  was  at 
the  spot  which  the  letter  had  indicated,  it  was  a 
remnant  of  the  old  town,  now  deserted  by  everyone  who 
cared  for  a  decent  reputation,  the  haunt  of  smugglers, 
thieves  and  prostitutes,  an  ugly  place,  suggestive  of 
evil  deeds.  He  found  no  one,  and  to  appearance  was 
entirely  alone.  He  could  see  nothing  save  the  outline 
of  gables  and  chimneys  against  the  fog.  A  hundred 
ruffians,  however,  might  be  skulking  under  the  walls, 
and  he  kept  near  the  water  side,  that  he  might  spring 
in  and  swim  for  it  if  he  was  attacked.  For  some 
minutes  he  strolled  to  and  fro  on  the  edge  of  the 
jetty,  neither  hearing  nor  seeing  anything.  But  some- 
one must  have  seen  him,  for  suddenly  he  became 
conscious  of  a  figure  directly  in  front  of  him  which 
might  have  risen  out  of  the  pavement.  That  it  was  a 
man  he  could  distinguish,  but  nothing  besides. 

"  You  walk  late,"  said  a  voice,  "  and  it  is  a  dark 
night  for  exercise,  scarce  a  darker  I  ever  saw.  May 
be  you  have  business,  that  you  are  here  at  such  an 
hour." 

"  I  might  say  the  same  to  yourself,"  answered  Fitz- 
herbert  ;  "  but  if  I  have  business  I  do  not  speak  of  it 
to  a  stranger." 

"  You  are  a  gentleman  by  the  speech  of  you  ;  but 
you  are  not  the  gentleman  I  w^as  looking  for.    You  are 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV.  44i 

taller  like.  Take  advice  from  one  who  wishes  you  no 
ill  and  choose  some  other  ground  for  your  strolling. 
Here  is  no  place  for  the  like  of  yourself  if  you  are  an 
honest  man.     Be  off  out  of  this." 

"  The  Quay  is  open  to  me  as  to  you,"  said  Fitz- 
herbert,  ''  and  where  I  please  to  walk  depends  on  no 
one  but  myself.  I,  too,  expected  to  meet  some  one 
here,  honest  or  dishonest  I  know  not,  and  for  all  I  can 
tell  you  may  be  the  man,  if  you  come  from  the  black- 
smith's shop." 

The  fellow  hesitated,  took  a  step  backwards,  and 
seemed  inclined  to  slip  away.     "  You  shall  not  leave  • 
me  either,"  Fitzherbert  said,  seizing  him  by  the  arm, 
"  till  I  know  whether  you  are  he  or  not." 

"  Hands  off!  "  said  the  man,  lowering  his  voice  to  a 
whisper.  ''  Hands  off,  I  tell  ye  ;  or  by  the  Lord,  with 
one  call  on  this  whistle  I'll  bring  them  on  ye  that  will 
lay  ye  on  the  harbour's  bottom  with  as  little  thought  as 
if  ye  were  a  bag  of  ballast.  Who  are  ye,  and  what 
do  ye  mean  by  the  words  ye  spake  just  now?  " 

''  If  you  are  the  person  I  suppose  you  to  be,'"  re- 
plied Fitzherbert,  "you  have  something  to  communi- 
cate of  consequence  to  the  State.     I  come  to  hear  it." 

"  Speak  lower,  man,  if  ye  would  leave  this  without  a 
knife  in  the  body  of  you.  Who  are  ye,  I  say  ?  I 
looked  for  another." 

"  He  you  looked  for  does  not  walk  about  the  quays 
of  Cork  at  midnight  to  meet  strangers  who  pretend 
they  have  secrets  for  him.  It  is  enough  that  I  am 
here  in  his  place.  I  have  seen  your  letter.  I  come  to 
learn  what  you  have  to  say." 

"  I  asked  ye  who  ye  were,  and  ye  have  not  tould 
me.  D'ye  think  I'd  be  speaking  the  word  that  might 
be  a  rope  to  hang  me  if  it  fell  into  the  wrong  ears  ? 


442  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

Unless  you  are  plain  with  me,  begorra  I'll  set  them  on 
ye  that  will  have  the  mask  off  your  face,  whoever  ye 
are." 

Fitzherbcrt  hesitated.  A  disturbance  might  bring 
the  watch,  and  he  did  not  want  the  world  to  know 
that  he  met  ruffians  at  night  in  the  purlieus  of  Cork. 
But  he  had  the  right  man  before  him.  He  was  sure 
of  that.  And  he  would  learn  nothing  unless  he  could 
satisfy  the  fellow  that  the  secret  might  be  safely  con- 
fided to  him. 

"  I  am  the  friend  of  him  to  whom  you  wrote,"  he 
said.  "  I  am  to  engage  for  him  that  what  you  may 
tell  shall  be  no  hurt  to  yourself,  and  that  if  you  tell 
truth  you  shall  have  a  reward.  You  will  believe 
me  the  better  when  I  inform  you  that  I  know  what 
you  meant  about  the  Blacksmith's  place.  I  am  Vne 
near  kinsman  to  him  that  was  killed  there." 

"  Hist,  hist  !  "  whispered  the  man.  "  The  stones  can 
hear  in  these  quarters.  I  know  all  about  ye  now. 
Ye'll  be — but  we'll  speak  no  names,  neither  yours  nor 
mine.  If  I  tould  ye  that,  ye'd  be  wanting  me  for  the 
witness-box  ;  and  how  many  days  do  ye  think  I'd  be 
living  in  this  world  if  it  was  known  I  had  helped  to 
hang  him  that  you  think  is  beyond  the  seas.  Ye  will 
understand  my  meaning.  I'll  not  tell  ye  who  I  am, 
but  I  can  teach  ye  where  ye  may  have  him  if  ye  will  ; 
for  I  tell  ye  I've  sworn  revenge  upon  him,  and  I'll 
have  it.  I  risked  my  life  for  him,  and  I  risked  my 
soul  for  him.  My  soul  I'll  lose  any  way,  for  devil  a 
priest  in  Ireland  will  give  me  his  pardon  for  what  I'm 
doing  now  ;  but  I'll  ha\-e  my  revenge,  I  say.  After 
all  I  done  for  him,  and  me  of  his  own  blood  !  He 
drove  me  from  his  roof,  he  spurned  me  with  his  foot. 
He  swore  I'd  brought  a  curse  on  him,  and   that  shall 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  443 

be  true  for  him  any  way.  Will  ye  give  me  your 
promise  ?  We  don't  like  you  half-bred  Englishmen,  but 
we  can  trust  ye  to  keep  your  word.  Will  ye  under- 
take on  your  honour  that  if  I  put  ye  in  the  way  to 
capture  him  we  speak  of,  ye  will  give  me  twice  the 
published  reward  at  such  time  and  place  as  I'll  tell 
ye  of?" 

"  That  is  fair  enough,"  said  Fitzherbert.  "  Unless 
we  take  him  the  bargain  is  off.  If  we  do  take  him 
you  shall  have  what  you  ask.  If  we  don't  know  you 
we  can't  send  for  you  as  a  witness,  and  you  can  keep 
your  own  counsel.     Yes,  I  engage  for  that." 

"  Well,  then,"  the  man  hissed  in  his  ear.  "  Ye  think 
he  is  away  in  France.  I  tell  ye  he  has  come  back, 
and  is  at  this  day  in  the  ould  place  at  Eyris." 

"  That  cannot  be,"  said  Fitzherbert.  "  The  coast 
has  been  watched.  If  brig,  barque,  or  sloop  had 
crossed  from  Nantes  in  the  last  six  weeks,  it  could  not 
have  escaped." 

"  You  will  need  sharper  eyes,"  said  the  man,  "  than 
belong  to  your  sea  captains  to  see  all  vessels  that  pass 
between  the  French  coast  and  ours.  He  slipped 
through  where  you  would  never  think  in  a  fishing 
boat  of  the  Widow  Crosbie's  at  Port  Magee.  He 
has  been  in  Eyris  for  a  week.  He  will  stay 
another  week,  and  then  if  ye  miss  your  chance  he  will 
be  gone.  He  has  none  with  him  but  Connell  and  the 
boys  of  the  place.  If  ye  will  send  a  company  of  red- 
coats over  the  hill  at  Dunboy  in  the  dark,  and  let 
a  cutter  go  round  and  stop  the  mouth  of  his  hole,  you 
may  trap  him  like  a  wolf  Ye  will  do  it  if  ye  are  the 
men  I  take  ye  for.  And  now  God  speed  ye.  It 
would  be  ill  for  us  both  to  be  found  talking  together." 

As  he  spoke  he  was  gone,  disappearing,  as  silently 


444  THE   TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

as  he  had  come,  into  some  smugglers'  den.  With 
difficulty,  and  with  occasional  anxious  glances  over 
his  shoulder  as  the  echo  of  his  own  feet  made  him 
fear  that  he  was  followed,  Fitzherbert  made  his  way 
back  to  the  Castle  and  reported  his  intei-view  to  the 
General.  The  circumstances  under  which  the  informa- 
tion had  been  given  were  sensationally  impressive  ; 
but  whether  it  could  or  could  not  be  depended  on 
was  hard  to  decide.  Informers  were  a  detestable 
race,  but  it  was  through  their  help  only  that  the 
English  rulers  could  ever  arrive  at  the  knowledge 
which  was  of  greatest  moment  to  them.  If  anything 
was  to  be  done,  it  must  be  done  immediately,  or  the 
nest  would  be  found  empty.  General  Vavasour  could 
not  send  a  frigate  off  the  station  without  reference  to 
the  Admiral  at  Kinsale.  Before  he  could  despatch  a 
military  expedition,  his  proper  duty  would  be  to  refer 
first  to  Dublin  Castle.  A  week  at  least  would  be 
wasted  before  he  would  receive  an  answer,  and  the 
answer  when  it  came  would  probably  be  dilatory  or 
negative  ;  while,  owing  to  the  secret  undercurrents 
in  the  working  of  the  Irish  administration,  it  was 
likely  that  private  warnings  would  be  sent  to  Eyris 
before  active  steps  were  sanctioned. 

Vavasour  was  not  afi-aid  of  responsibilities.  A 
rising  easterly  wind  was  blowing  fair  along  the  coast. 
Morty  Sullivan  was  proclaimed,  and  loyal  subjects 
had  been  called  on  to  capture  him  anywhere  and  by 
any  means.  Irregular  measures  might  thus  be  ven- 
tured on.  Two  regiments  stationed  in  the  town  were 
under  Vavasour's  immediate  command,  and  although 
he  had  no  authority  over  the  King's  ships  in  the  river, 
he  had  a  Revenue  Cutter,  well  armed  and  manned, 
which  had  been  commissioned  for  his  personal  use. 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  445 

There  was  a  sloop  besides  in  the  harbour,  which  had 
been  hired  by  Fitzherbert  to  transport  Colonel  Gor- 
ing's  furniture  and  books  from  Dunboy  to  England. 
She  had  made  one  trip,  and  had  returned,  and  was 
waiting  further  directions  with  all  hands  on  board. 

Orders  were  sent  to  both  cutter  and  sloop  to  be 
ready  to  sail  at  dawn,  and  a  note  was  despatched  to 
the  barracks  for  a  company  of  men  with  a  couple  of 
officers,  whom  Vavasour  named,  that  were  wanted  for 
special  service. 

They  were  divided  between  the  two  vessels.  Fitz- 
herbert went  in  his  own  as  a  volunteer,  and  nothing  was 
to  be  said  of  their  destination  till  they  were  outside  the 
lighthouse,  and  communication  with  the  town  was  cut 
off.  Thus  it  was  that  by  noon  on  the  following  day, 
twelve  hours  after  Fitzherbert  had  parted  from  his 
nameless  informant,  a  hundred  men  were  being  carried 
up  the  coast  with  a  fair  wind  between  Kinsale  and 
Galley  Head.  The  instruction  had  been  to  select 
only  English,  and  it  had  been  observed  so  far  as  it 
was  possible  in  the  haste.  It  turned  out  that  among 
them  all  there  was  one  Irishman,  and  he,  unluckily  for 
himself,  a  Sullivan,  from  the  very  district  for  which 
they  were  bound.  Fitzherbert  was  to  act  as  guide. 
The  intention  was  to  keep  the  sea  till  nightfall,  and  not 
to  approach  Bantry  Bay  till  daylight  was  gone.  Cap- 
tain  N ,  the  officer  in  command,  had   been  told 

merely  that  he  was  sent  to  arrest  a  notorious  smuggler, 
and  that  when  the  troops  were  landed  he  was  to  follow 
Fitzherbert's  directions. 

The  weather  was  wild.  The  wind  blew  hard  all 
day,  with  heavy  rain  and  mist,  which  covered  the 
vessels  from  inquisitive  eyes  on  shore.  They  made  a 
rapid  passage,  and  before  sunset  they  were  off  Crook- 


446  THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOV. 


haven.  No  flight  of  predatory  rooks  on  a  new- 
sown  corn  field,  are  more  swift  to  take  alarm  than 
the  Irish  of  the  coast  at  the  sight  of  a  British  cruiser. 
On  the  least  suspicion,  warnings  would  be  signalled 
from  headland  to  headland,  and,  thick  as  it  was,  the. 
sloop  and  cutter  separated  at  the  Fastnet,  and  stood  off 
to  sea  as  if  they  were  on  a  fishing  cruise.  At  dusk, 
when  ten  miles  from  land,  they  drew  together  again, 
and  made  in  for  the  Bay.  At  midnight  the  soldiers 
-were  put  on  shore  in  the  Colonel's  boat-harbour  in  front 
of  his  now  desolate  house.  The  Protestant  commu- 
nity had  departed,  not  a  single  straggler  of  them  being 
left.  The  cottages  were  empty,  the  Catholic  Irish 
having,  as  yet,  avoided  the  neighbourhood.  Thus 
shore  and  village  were  utterly  solitary,  not  even  a  dog 
remaining  to  give  notice  of  the  approach  of  strangers. 
The  sloop  brought  up  at  her  usual  anchorage,  that,  if 
by  accident  anyone  caught  sight  of  her,  it  might  be 
supposed  that  she  had  returned  for  a  second  cargo  of 
the  Colonel's  property.  The  cutter  bore  away  round 
Dursey  and  the  Bull  Rock,  with  orders  to  haul  her 
wind  when  she  had  passed  the  point,  and  bear  up  for 
the  entrance  of  Bally  Ouoilach. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Wilder  and  wilder  grew  the  night.  The  wind 
howled  among  the  cliffs,  and  tore  to  pieces  the  flowers 
which  were  blooming  as  if  nothing  had  happened  in 
the  Colonel's  desolate  garden.  The  rain  fell  in 
slanting  streams,  making  pools  about  the  beach  and 
turning  lane  and  track  into  brown  rivulets.  Fitz- 
herbert,    to    whom     every    object    was    mournfully 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY.  447 

familiar,  led  the  party  by  an  unfrequented  path  to  the 
west,  which  had  been  the  short  cut  from  Dunboy  to 
the  mines.  Skirting  the  deserted  cottages  of  the 
colony,  they  ascended  the  hill-side,  without  having 
been  seen  or  heard.  The  single  sign  of  life  was  a 
light  burning  in  the  back  window  of  Goring's  house, 
where  an  old  servant  still  kept  guard  on  the  remnants 
of  his  property.  After  marching  cautiously  for  half- 
a  mile  they  came  out  upon  the  regular  track  which 
led  over  the  mountain  gap  to  Eyris,  and  those  among 
them  who  knew  the  country,  understood  now  that  it  was 
to  Eyris  that  they  were  going.  It  has  been  mentioned 
that  by  accident  there  was  an  Irish  private  in  the  de- 
tachment. With  ready  instinct  he  saw  that  his  own 
people  were  the  object  of  the  expedition.  He  bolted  at 
a  turn  of  the  road,  and  dodged  among  the  rocks.  But 
he  missed  his  footing  in  the  dark,  he  was  caught  and 
handcuffed  to  a  comrade,  and  the  column  passed  on. 
As  they  came  up  into  the  gap,  the  tempest  increased 
in  fury.  They  had  been  in  partial  shelter  as  they 
ascended.  On  the  level  brow,  the  wind  had  blown 
the  peat  stacks  flat ;  the  sheep  had  huddled  away 
among  the  bog  pits  ;  the  raindrops  pelted  like  hail. 
The  very  elements  had  conspired  to  ensure  the 
completeness  of  the  surprise.  With  the  wind  behind 
them,  the  soldiers  moved  the  quicker ;  on  such  a 
night  no  human  creature  v\'ould  be  stirring  abroad  ; 
and  as  they  descended  into  the  valley,  and  had  to 
pass  an  occasional  cabin,  they  were  still  unnoticed. 
Even  the  curs  were  lying  in-doors  for  shelter,  and  let 
them  go  by  unheard.  Had  eye  seen  them,  or  ear 
caught  the  sound  of  the  military  tramp,  the  warning  cry 
Vvould  have  rung  from  house  to  house,  a  hundred 
lads  would  have   started   like   hares  from  their  forms, 


448  THE    TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 

and  have  sped  over  the  moss-hags  to  give  the  alarm. 
But  all  eyes  were  closed  in  sleep,  and  all  ears  were 
closed  by  the  storm. 

Thus  unobserved  they  went  on.  Dawn  was 
beginning  to  break  as  they  approached  their  desti- 
nation ;  and  the  low  lines  of  Morty's  dwelling  could 
be  just  discerned  in  the  growing  light,  when  a  shot 
was  fired  from  the  middle  of  their  ranks,  which  might 
have  disconcerted  all  their  precautions.  The  hand- 
cuffed Sullivan,  careless  of  himself,  and  desperate  at 
the  thought  of  what  might  be  coming,  had  contrived, 
in  spite  of  his  irons,  to  grasp  and  fire  his  comrade's 
musket.  He  was  shot  himself  afterwards,  for  his  in- 
effectual treason.  His  heroism  had  been  thrown  away. 
A  gust  of  wind  tore  the  sound  to  pieces,  and 
scattered  it  in  the  war  of  the  elements. 

In  the  house  at  Eyris  too,  the  inmates  were  all 
sleeping  at  last  ;  but  two  of  them  had  watched  late, 
and  had  gone  to  rest  only  with  the  approach  of  day- 
light. Under  the  roof  were  some  twenty  of  the 
river  smugglers,  who  remained  on  guard  there  while 
Morty  was  in  the  country.  These,  and  the  faithful 
Connell  along  with  them,  had  been  slumbering  the 
night  through  in  their  hamm.ocks,  or  stretched  on 
straw  in  the  garrets,  amidst  spars,  and  casks,  and 
rope  coils.  The  boy,  the  heir  of  Morty's  name  and 
of  his  hereditary  rights,  lay  gathered  in  his  cot, 
dreaming  of  what  he  would  do  when  he  was  a  man. 
Morty  was  engaged  preparatory  for  his  departure,  in 
making  up  the  accounts  of  various  contraband  trans- 
actions which  he  had  undertaken  for  Blake  before 
his  flight  to  the  West  Indies.  They  were  complicated 
by  the  secrecy  with  which  the  business  had  been 
carried  on.      Besides    his    ledgers    he    had  piles   of 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  449 


letters,  some  of  which  he  had  been  burning,  while 
he  made  notes  from  others,  that  he  might  leave  ever>'- 
thing  in  proper  order.  Ellen  Mahony  had  been 
watching  out  the  hours  at  his  side  over  her  spinning- 
wheel,  and  crooning  out  old  Irish  songs,  saddest 
sweetest  and  most  hopeless  of  human  melodies. 

"  There,"  Morty  said,  pushing  his  books  from  him 
at  last,  and  leaning  back  in  his  carved  oak  chair  : 
'*'  There  stand  the  names  of  more  than  a  score  of  the 
gentry  who  now  rule  in  these  two  counties.  God 
knows  whether  our  own  ancestors  were  any  better, 
but  worse  they  could  hardly  be.  Cromwell's  Iron- 
sides were,  at  least,  men.  Bigots  and  heretics  though 
they  were,  they  lived  for  a  cause  ;  they  believed  in 
what  they  called  their  God.  We  were  ten  to  each 
one  of  them,  and  they  beat  us  down  in  fair  fight. 
But  these  who  came  in  their  places  ?  Why,  I  have 
actually  letters  here  from  some  of  them,  hinting  how 
good  a  job  they  would  think  it  if  Goring  was  put  out 
of  the  way,  for  spoiling  the  trade.  Aye,  aye !  It  is 
well  for  us  that  Goring  has  not  left  his  like  behind 
him."  ' 

"  And  for  what  will  ye  be  for  ever  thinking  of  that 
man,  Morty  ?  "  said  his  sister.  "  He  was  an  ill  friend 
to  me,  and  a  worse  to  the  mother  that  bore  us  both. 
He  is  gone  now.  The  Lord  forgive  him  his  sins.  I 
will  wish  him  that  grace,  at  any  rate,  though  he  little 
deserves  it  at  my  hand.  Ye  are  tired,  Morty,  and 
worn  out.  To  bed  with  ye,  and  sleep.  Sure  the 
morning  light  is  coming  through  the  curtains.  Hark, 
how  the  wind  roars.  It  is  an  awful  night.  The  Lord 
be  gracious  to  us  !     What  is  that  ?  " 

She  had  risen  to  look  out.  At  that  moment  some- 
thing fluttered  past  the  window  which,  to  her  strained 

2Q 


4SO  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 


senses,  was  like  a  draped  woman's  figure.  It  paused. 
and  seemed  to  look  at  her  ;  a  long  arm  stretched 
out  from  under  the  cloak,  and  a  skinny  finger  pointed 
into  the  room.  The  apparition  lasted  for  half-a- 
dozen  seconds,  and  then  melted  off,  with  a  wailing 
cry,  like  a  note  struck  by  a  passing  gust  from  the 
strings  of  an  ^olian  harp. 

The  form  might  have  been  a  phantom  of  imagina- 
tion— but  the  sound  disturbed  a  wolf-hound  on  the 
hearth,  who  raised  his  head  and  answered  with  a 
half-uttered  howl.  "  Oh  God  !  "  Ellen  Mahony  said. 
"  It  is  the  Banshee.  She  came  the  night  our  mother 
died — and  now  she  comes  again.  One  of  us  in  this 
room  will  never  see  another  sunrise." 

Morty  shuddered,  in  spite  of  himself  The  dog 
sank  back  and  turned  uneasily  over,  as  if  he  had  been 
dreaming  in  his  sleep.  "  Tush,  Ellen,"  he  said.  "  It 
is  but  the  moaning  of  the  gale,  and  the  sheets  of 
rain  gleaming  in  the  half-light  of  dawn.  You,  too,  are 
w^orn  and  weary,  and  fancy  is  playing  pranks  with 
you.  We  should  both  be  asleep.  These  tricks  of 
the  mind  are  potent  with  tired  spirits,  and  our  Irish 
natures  feel  them  more  than  most.  We  will  to  bed 
now.  A  few  more  days,  and  our  native  soil  will  know 
us  no  more.  The  past  is  gone,  a  new  life  will  begin 
for  us  in  happier  lands,  and  that  boy  of  yours  shall 
have  a  better  fortune  than  his  father." 

He  rose  and  joined  his  sister  at  the  window.  The 
rain  was  rushing  down  in  torrents.  The  swollen  river 
was  roaring  along  its  channel  beyond  the  garden  in 
a  yellow  flood,  and  was  brimming  over  the  banks. 
Some  sound  caught  Morty's  ear.  He  started,  and 
listened.  "  That  was  strangely  like  a  musket-shot," 
he  said.     "  But,   ah,  no !     We   are   the   fools   of  our 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUX  BOY.  451 


fears  to-night.  Some  boulder  was  started  from 
its  bed  by  the  river.  It  is  time  we  were  in  ours. 
Good-night,  dear  Ellen.  You  have  had  a  hard  life 
in  this  land,  and  I  am  glad  that  you  have  agreed  to 
leave  it.     The  future  shall  make  amends  for  all." 

Morty's  ears  had  been  truer  than  his  judgment. 
What  he  had  heard  was  the  shot  fired  by  his  poor 
clansman,  who  had  forfeited  his  life  to  save  him. 
But  the  hound  did  not  move  again  ;  and  there  were 
no  further  sounds  but  the  raving  of  the  storm  and  the 
noise  of  the  water.  Sleep  had  closed  the  eyes  of 
Ellen  Mahony.  Morty  had  flung  himself  wearily  on 
his  bed  and  was  sinking  into  unconsciousness,  when 
he  was  roused  again  by  the  fierce  barking  of  a  dozen 
dogs  who  were  chained  in  the  yard. 

To  spring  to  his  feet,  seize  a  blunderbuss  and  rush 
to  the  door,  was  the  work  of  a  moment.  Through  a 
slit  in  the  wall  he  saw^  that  the  house  was  surrounded. 
Yielding  to  his  first  impulse,  he  fired,  but  fired  wildly, 
and  the  shot  took  no  effect.  It  was  otherwise  with 
the  fire  from  the  windows.  His  men,  roused,  like 
himself,  by  the  dogs,  had  bounded  up,  snatched  their 
carbines,  and  poured  out  a  destructive  volley.  One  of 
the  soldiers  was  killed,  three  were  wounded.  Cap- 
tain N sheltered  his  party  among  the  rocks  and 

walls,  where  they  could  be  less  easily  hit,  and  so 
disposed  them  as  to  make  escape  f-om  the  house 
impossible.  His  orders  were  to  take  Morty  alive,  and 
he  summoned  him  to  surrender. 

To  resist,  seemed  a  wanton  sacrifice  of  life.  The 
house,  being  thatched,  could  be  easily  set  on  fire.  No 
relief  could  be  looked   for  from  outside  ;  and,  if  he 

defied  Captain  N ,  and  forced  him  to  storm  the 

place,  Morty    knew   that   his   poor    followers   would 


452  THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUN  BOY. 


never  desert  him,  and  would  all  be  killed  at  his  side. 
He  had  his  sister  to  think  for  also,  and  the  child  ;  and 
local  legend  says,  that,  seeing  the  case  was  hopeless, 
he  was  un\\'illing  to  fire  any  more  on  the  English 
soldiers — "  He  was  too  proud  to  shoot  the  shilling-a- 
day  men."  Probably  he  would  not  have  been  too 
proud  to  shoot  them,  every  one,  if  he  could  have 
escaped  by  doing  it  ;  but  he  ordered  the  firing 
from  the  windows  to  cease,  he  demanded  a  parley, 
and    requested    the    English    officer   to    take    charge 

of  his  sister,  with  the  boy.     To  this  Captain  N , 

of  course,  consented  ;  and  Ellen  Mahony  desperate, 
but  helpless,  and  almost  unconscious,  was  passed  out, 
with  the  child  in  her  arms. 

Morty  then  bade  his  men  shift  ^or  themselves, 
and  eighteen  of  them  started  singly  from  various 
bolting  holes  to  make  for  the  sea  or  the  mountains. 
They  were  all  caught,  and  each  of  them  hsd 
perhaps  a  dozen  crimes  to  answer  for.  But  the 
object  of  the  expedition  was  to  capture  those  who 
had  been  concerned  in  the  murder  at  Dunboy,  and 
the  rest,  who  were  found  not  to  belong  to  them,  were 
let  go. 

Inside  the  house  there  were  now  five  left.  Morty 
himself,  Connell,  and  three  more  who  had  been  in  the 
boat  at  Dunboy  with  them.  If  they  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  taken  alive,  they  had  nothing  before  them 
but  an  ignominious  execution.  If  they  could  reach 
the  flooded  river,  it  would  either  drown  them  or  take 
them  down  to  the  sea,  where  there  would  still  be  hope. 

Again  they  were  required  to  surrender,  and 
they  returned  no  answer.  The  doors  and  windows 
were  too  strong  to  be  forced  by  ordinary  implements. 
There  was  no  spare  powder  to  make  bursting  charges- 


THE    TWO    CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  453 

And  thus  to  Fitzherbert  s  regret,  for  he  was  anxious 
that  Morty's  papers  should  not  be  injured,  it  was 
determined  to  set  the  house  on  fire. 

Even  this  was  found  less  easy  than  was  looked  for. 
The  thatch  was  soaked  with  the  night's  rain,  and 
would  not  kindle.  Some  one  quicker  than  the  rest 
tore  off  the  damp  layer  of  the  outside  straw,  and 
thrust  in  balls  of  wild  fire.  Then  the  flames  caught 
the  dry  rafters.  The  lofts  were,  as  if  laid  for  con^ 
flagration,  full  of  tarred  hemp,  and  spars,  and  brandy 
barrels,  and  when  these  were  once  alight,  the  whole 
house  was  in  a  blaze,  the  roof  fell  in,  and  through 
the  sparks  and  eddying  smoke  wreaths,  Morty 
Sullivan  and  his  four  companions  made  a  last  rush 
for  life.  Two  were  shot  down  within  the  walls,  and 
were  consumed  in  the  fire.  Connell,  and  "  little  John 
Sullivan,"  who  had  been  the  coxswain  of  the  boat 
which  had  brought  Morty  to  Dunboy  on  the  fatal 
Sunday  morning,  were  seized  and  pinioned.  Morty 
himself  bounded  over  the  flames  into  the  garden  ;  at 
the  end  of  it  was  a  clump  of  elder  bushes,  and 
beyond  the  elders  there  was  a  steep  pitch  down  into 
the  river.  Could  he  reach  the  water  alive ,  there  was 
still  a  chance  for  him. 

But  he  never  reached  it.  A  dozen  muskets  rattled 
out  as  he  sprang  through  the  branches.  He  fell  dead, 
shot  through  the  heart. 

The  house  was  so  full  of  combustible  materials, 
that  although  the  rain  helped  to  extinguish  the  fire, 
some  hours  had  to  pass  before  the  ruins  could  be 
searched.  It  was  supposed  that  there  were  powder 
barrels  on  the  premises,  and  there  was  a  fear  of  ex- 
plosion. At  last  it  was  considered  safe  to  examine 
the   place.     Nine-tenths   of  it  had    been    completely 


454  THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUN  BOY. 

gutted.  The  hall  or  sitting  room,  however,  being  walled 
with  stone  and  roofed  with  solid  beams  of  oak,  had 
almost  escaped  injury.  The  bills  and  ledgers  were 
found  in  an  iron  chest  as  Morty  had  left  them.  Of 
the  correspondence  much  had  been  destroyed  by  him- 
self ;  but  enough  remained  of  so  compromising  im- 
port that  the  details  of  it  were  never  revealed.  Those 
who  were  on  the  spot  and  saw  it,  averred  that  more 
than  one  considerable  person  was  proved  to  have 
advised  that  Goring  should  be  removed.  But 
Vavasour  was  well  read,  and  remembered  how  Csesar 
had  disposed  of  Pompey's  papers  after  Pharsalia. 
No  merchant's  accounts  were  ever  kept  more  accu- 
rately than  the  entries  of  Morty's  dealings  on  be- 
half of  his  Nantes  employers.  But  these  were  not 
matters  on  which  the  Government  would  care  to  be 
informed.  Perhaps  if  Morty  himself  had  escaped  he 
might  not  have  been  too  curiously  enquired  after. 
But  he  had  gone  beyond  the  tolerated  limits.  Be- 
sides his  smuggling  offences  and  his  Scotch  adventure 
he  had  fluttered  the  dove-cotes  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  blood  of  an  English  officer  who  had  been  a  truer 
friend  to  Ireland  than  any  Sullivan  who  had  ever 
reigned  from  Glanarought  to  Iveragh  was  red  upcn 
his  hand.  By  the  law  of  England,  by  the  law  of  all 
civilised  nations,  he  had  fallen  as  a  felon,  and  as  a 
felon  only  could  he  be  regarded.  The  cutter  had 
come  round  into  the  bay,  and  the  body  was  given  in 
charge  to  the  crew  to  be  carried  to  Cork.  They 
lashed  a  rope  round  the  neck  and  shoulders  and  made 
it  fast  behind  the  cutter's  stern,  and  in  this  ignominious 
fashion  they  towed  behind  them  all  that  w^as  left  of 
Morty  through  the  waters  of  which  he  had  been 
the    glory  and  the    terror.       At    Cork,    when    they 


THE    TWO   CHIEFS    OF  DUNBOY.  455 

arrived  there,  the  trunk  was  quartered  and  the  sea- 
washed  head  was  set  on  the  castle  battlements,  His 
comrades  who  were  taken  when  he  was  killed  had  a 
short  shrift,  and  the  bloody  drama  was  ended. 

Colonel  Goring  belonged  to  an  order  of  men  who,  if 
they  had  been  allowed  fair  play,  would  have  made  the 
sorrows  of  Ireland  the  memory  of  an  evil  dream  ;  but 
he  had  come  too  late,  the  spirit  of  the  Crom- 
wellians  had  died  out  of  the  land,  and  was  not  to  be 
revived  by  a  single  enthusiast.  Morty  Sullivan  slew 
him,  and  when  slain  in  turn  met  his  just  reward. 
Yet,  when  the  actions  of  men  are  measured  in  the 
eternal  scale,  and  the  sins  of  those  who  had  under- 
taken to  rule  Ireland  and  had  not  ruled  it  are  seen  in 
the  full  blossom  of  their  consequences,  the  guilt  of 
Morty,  the  guilt  of  many  another  desperate  patriot  in 
that  ill-fated  country,  may  be  found  to  bear  most  heavily 
on  those  English  statesmen  whose  reckless  negligence 
was  the  true  cause  of  their  crimes. 

Connell,  on  the  night  before  he  was  h:mself  exe- 
cuted, wrote  in  Irish  a  last  tribute  to  the  friend  whom 
he  had  so  faithfully  followed.  The  inflation  of  style 
may  be  more  apparent  than  real,  and  may  be  due  to 
the  contemporary  translator.  Even  if  the  language  is 
faithfully  rendered  it  will  not  be  harshly  judged. 

"  Morty,  my  dear  and  loved  master,  you  carried  the 
sway  for  strength  and  generosity.  It  is  my  endless 
grief  and  sorrow — sorrow  that  admits  no  comfort — 
that  your  fair  head  should  be  gazed  at  as  a  show  upon 
a  pike  and  that  your  noble  frame  is  without  life.  I  have 
travelled  with  you  in  foreign  lands.  You  moved  with 
kings  in  the  Royal  Prince's  army.  The  great  God  is 
good  and  merciful.  I  ask  His  pardon  and  support, 
for  I  am  to  be  hanged  to-morrow  without  doubt.  The 


456 


THE   TWO   CHIEFS   OF  DUNBOY. 


rope  will  squeeze  my  neck,  and  thousands  will  lament 
my  fate.  May  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  my  master  ! 
It  is  for  his  sake  I  am  now  in  their  power.  Kerry- 
onians  pray  for  us  !  Sweet  and  melodious  is  your 
voice.  My  blessing  I  give  you  ;  but  you  will  never 
see  me  again  among  you  alive.  Our  heads  will  be 
on  a  pike  for  a  show  under  the  cold  snow  of  night  and 
the  burning  sun  of  summer.  Oh,  that  ever  I  was 
born  !  Oh  that  ever  I  returned  to  Berehaven  !  Mine 
was  the  best  of  masters  that  Ireland  could  produce. 
May  our  souls  be  floating  to-morrow  in  the  rays  of 
endless  glory."  * 


*  See  Gibson's  "  History  of  Cork, 


52. 


AY  USE 

OM  WHICH  BORROWED 


N  DEPT. 


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